ESSAYS  ON 
FRENCH   HISTORY 


(f/'/tw&ity/  /V^     TQti/ef&rtica/ 


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ESSAYS  OiN  FRENCH  HISTORY 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 
IN    FRANCE 

THE  CLUB  OF  THE  JACOBINS 


BY 


JAMES  EUGENE  FARMER,  M.A. 

Master  in  History  and  English,  St.  Paul's  School 
Concord,   N.  H. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW   YORK  LONDON 

VI   WEST  TWENTY-THIRD   STREET  24    BEDFORD   STREET,  STRAND 

<£he  Snickerbothcr  |}rtss 
1897 


Copyright,  1897 

BY 

JAMES  EUGENE  FARMER 
•<Y  MOKS£  STEf! 


Zbe  *?nlcherbocher  press,  t\c\v  ]!jorfc 


THE  RISE  OF  THE    REFORMATION  IN 

FRANCE   AND    ITS    RELATION   TO 

MARTIN    LUTHER. 


AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED. 

Merle  d'Aubigne,  History  of  the  Reformation.     New  York,  1853. 

Henry  M.  Baird,  Rise  of  the  Huguenots  in  France.  New  York, 
1879. 

Theod.  de  Beze,  Histoire  Ecclhiastique  des  Eglises  Re'forme'es  au 
Royaume  de  France.     Anvers,  1580. 

Biographie  Gdne'rale,  articles  :    "  Lefevred'Etaples,"  "Farel,"etc. 

Alexander  Budinszky,  Die  Universitdi  Paris. 

Creighton,  History  of  the  Papacy. 

Cyclopedia  of  Biblical  and  Theological  Literature,  article  :  "  Jaco- 
bus Faber  Stapulensis." 

Gieseler,  Ecclesiastical  History,  vol.  iv.     New  York,  1876. 

Charles  Henri  Graf,  Essai  sur  la  Vie  et  les  Ecrits  de  Jacques  Le- 
flvre  d'Etaples.  (These  presentee  a  la  Faculte  de  Theologie  Protes- 
tante  de  Strasbourg,  le  Mardi  7  Juin  1842.)     Strasbourg,  1842. 

M.  Herminjard,  Correspon dance  des  Reformateurs,  tome  i. 

Jervis,  Gallican  Church  of  France. 

Niedner's  Zeitschrift  fur  die  Hist.  Theologie,  1852  (K.  H.  Graf, 
"  Jacobus  Faber  Stapulensis  "). 

Ranke,  Civil  Wars  and  Monarchy  in  France. 

Ranke,  History  of  the  Reformation. 

Sismondi,  Histoire  de  France.     Bruxelles,  1844. 

Von  Polenz,  Geschichte  des  franzosischen  Calvinismus,  in  seiner 
Bluthe  bis  zum  A uf stands  von  Amboise.     1560. 


THE    RISE   OF  THE    REFORMATION   IN 

FRANCE  AND  ITS  RELATION  TO 

MARTIN  LUTHER. 


A 


T  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  University  of  Paris  was  the  in- 
stitution of  learning  par  excellence  in  Europe. 
Its  origin,  lost  in  the  mists  of  past  ages,  was 
attributed  by  popular  legend,  though  on  very 
doubtful  authority,  to  the  Emperor  Charle- 
magne. With  its  many  buildings,  covering  the 
greater  part  of  the  present  Quartier  Lati?i,  its 
learned  and  zealous,  though  poorly  paid,  pro- 
fessors, its  twenty  odd  thousand  students, 
divided  (according  to  their  nationality)  into  the 
"nations"  of  France,  England,  Picardy,  and 
Normandy,  and  its  famous  theological  school, 
the  Sorbonne  (founded  in  1250  by  Robert  of 
that  name),  the  University  of  Paris  had  become 
the  Mecca  toward  which  men  eager  for  learn- 
ing  were  wont  to  wend  their  way. 

3 


4  Essays  on  French  History. 

In  1493,  the  faculty  of  this  Paris  University- 
numbered  among  its  members  a  certain  Picard 
professor,  Jacques  Lefevre  d'Etaples,  or,  as  he 
is  better  known,  Jacobus  Faber  Stapulensis. 

He  was,  at  this  period,  about  thirty-eight 
years  of  age,  having  been  born  in  1455  at  the 
village  of  Etaples  in  Picardy. 

"It  is  impossible  to  determine,"  says  Henri 
Graf,1  "what  were  his  first  studies,  or  in  what 
year  he  first  arrived  in  Paris.  He  appears  to 
have  possessed  ecclesiastical  dignities  and  bene- 
fices but  he  renounced  them  later,  and,  giv- 
ing to  his  family  the  property  which  he  had  at 
Etaples,  devoted  himself  entirely  to  the  study 
of  letters  and  of  philosophy." 

He  had  travelled  much  in  Europe  and  in 
Asia — for  the  considerable  fortune2 which  he 
possessed  enabled  him  to  do  so, — and  though 
he  had  received  a  "  barbarous  education,"  as 
Theodore  Beza3  calls  it,  yet  genius  supplied  in 
him  the  want  of  better  instruction  and,  confin- 
ing his  attention  to  no  single  branch  of  learn- 
ing, he  had  acquired  proficiency  in  mathematics, 
in  biblical  literature,  and  in  astronomy.    Among 

1  Charles  Henri  Graf,  Essai  sur  la  Vie  de  Jacques  Lefevre,  p.  -5. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  5. 

*  Theod.  de  Beze,  Histoire  Eccle'siastique  des  Eglises  Reforme'es. 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  i?i  France.  5 

his  numerous  scientific  works,  he  has  left  us  an 
astronomical  treatise  and  an  introduction  and 
commentary  on  the  arithmetic  of  Boethius.1 

"  He  lived  ordinarily  at  Paris,  and  acquired  a 
great  reputation  by  his  lessons2  in  mathematics 
and  especially  by  those  in  astronomy.  The 
most  distinguished  men  of  the  period  were  his 
pupils,  and  the  friends  of  letters  honored  him, 

1  Ouvrages  publiees  par  Lefevre  avant  15 17  (after  Henri  Graf,  pp. 
14-20) : 

(i)  Aristotelis  philosophies  naturalis  Paraphrases  et  Introductio 
in  sex  primos  libros  metaphysicos ,  etc.  (1501,  1504,  1521). 

(2)  Aristotelis  Opus  metaphysicum  Bessarione  Card,  inter prete 
XIV.  libris  distinctum,  cum  commentariis  Argyropyli  Byzant.  in 
XII.  primos  (15 15). 

(3)  Meteorologia.  Aristotelis  cum  y.  Fabri  St.  paraphrasi  et  com- 
mentar  (1512). 

(4)  Artificialis  Introductio  per  modum  Epitomatis  in  decern  libros 
Ethicorum  Aristotelis  cum  Comment.  (1502,  1506,  1 5 12). 

(5)  Decern  libri  Ethic.  Arist.  ex  trad.  Argyropylium  Fabri  com- 
ment. (15 14,  1522). 

(6)  Epitome  compendiosaque  Introductio  in  libros  arithmeticos  D. 
Severini  Boitii  cum  Clictovei  commentario  Astronomicon,  alia  opusca 
(1503,  1510,  1522.  1549). 

(7)  Arithmetica  yordani  Nemorarii,  Musica  IV.  libris  demon- 
strata,  Epitome  in  Arith.  Boetii,  RhythmimachicE  ludus  qui  et pugna 
numerorum  appellatur  (15 14). 

(8)  Proverbia  Raymundi  Lulli  ejd.  philosophia  amoris.  yod.  Bad. 
Ascitis.  (1516). 

(9)  Richardi  quondam  devoti  Coenobites  S.  Victoris  de  Trinitate 
Opus  theologicum  cum  comment.  (1510). 

(The  foregoing  list  does  not  include  all  the  works  published  by  Le- 
fevre prior  to  1517.) 

2  Read  "  lectures." 


6  Essays  on  French  History. 

regarding  him  as  the  restorer  of  the  true  philo- 
sophy of  Aristotle.  Louis  XII.  esteemed  him, 
and  the  great  nobles  also,  who,  in  imitation  of 
the  Italian  princes,  had  begun  to  favor  letters 
and  protect  scholars."1 

Enjoying  thus  in  France  and  abroad  a  repu- 
tation for  profound  learning  second  to  no 
man  of  his  time  (Erasmus  himself  places  him 
first),2  Lefevre  had  collected  about  him  a  num- 
ber of  the  more  studious  members  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Paris  who  were  his  devoted  followers. 
There  was  nothing  pleasing  in  his  small,  meagre 
person,  but  those  with  whom  he  came  in  con- 
tact soon  lost  sight  of  the  unattractiveness  of 
the  outward  man  in  contemplating  the  bril- 
liancy of  his  wonderfully  active  mind.  In  the 
year  1489,  near  the  town  of  Gap  in  Dauphine, 
was  born  in  the  family  of  Farel  a  son  whom 
they  named  Guillaume.  His  parents,  well-to- 
do  and  very  pious  people,  were  devout  servants 
of  the  papacy  and  the  young  Guillaume  and 
his  brothers  and  sisters  were  brought  up  in  "  all 
the  observances  of  Romish  devotion." 3  Young 
Farel  possessed  a  penetrating  mind  and  a  lively 

1  Graf,  Essai,  etc.,  pp.  q-ii. 

8  Merle  d'Aubigne,  History  of  the  Reformation,  p.  334. 

3  Guillaume  Farel,  Du  Vray  Usage  de  la  Croix  (after  D'Aubigne). 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.  7 

imagination  and  early  evinced  a  desire  for 
knowledge — to  know  something  beyond  his 
rosary  and  his  sword,  then  considered  sufficient 
education  for  the  young  provincial  noblesse  of 
his  class.  He  asked  permission  to  devote  him- 
self to  study.  This  plan  did  not  agree  at  all 
with  the  course  his  father  desired  to  mark  out 
for  him.  He  would  have  had  his  son  follow 
in  the  footsteps  of  his  fellow-countryman,  the 
Dauphinese  Du  Terrail,  who  had  just  then,  at 
the  battle  of  the  Tar,  given  a  signal  display  of 
that  courage  which  was  in  after  years  to  win 
him  the  proud  title  of  Bayard,  le  chevalier  sans 
peur  et  sans  reproche.  Young  Farel,  however, 
persevered  in  his  entreaties.  His  father's  ob- 
jections finally  gave  way  and,  in  1 5  io,Guillaume 
set  out  for  the  University  of  Paris. 

There  he  applied  himself  diligently  to  study 
and  was  constantly  to  be  seen  in  the  churches 
praying  to  some  saint,  chanting  the  mass,  or 
devoutly  repeating  his  hours.  Among  those 
who,  like  himself,  were  engaged  in  these  pious 
duties,  Farel  soon  noticed  an  aged  man  who, 
more  than  all  others,  struck  him  by  the  "  great 
reverence  with  which  he  sang  the  mass."  He 
became  anxious  to  meet  this  reverent  pil- 
grim and,  upon  learning  that  he  was  no  other 


8  Essays  on  French  History. 

than  the  celebrated  professor  of  the  Paris  Uni- 
versity, Jacques  Lefevre,  his  desire  to  know 
him  increased  the  more.  Great  was  his  joy 
therefore  when  he  was  cordially  received  by 
Lefevre  and  allowed  to  join  the  number  of 
those  favored  ones  who  were  wont  to  gather 
knowledge  from  his  teachings.  It  seemed 
very  unlikely  at  that  time  that  these  two  men, 
Jacques  Lefevre  and  Guillaume  Farel,  were  to 
be  ere  long  the  beginners  of  the  Reformation 
in  France.  Lefevre  was  scrupulous  in  the 
performance  of  his  religious  duties,  especially 
devout  in  his  attendance  at  mass,  assiduous  in 
his  devotion  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  and,  in  his 
zeal  for  the  Church,  had  undertaken  to  compile 
the  lives  of  the  saints  whose  names  appear  in 
the  Roman  calendar.  Farel,  brought  up  in  the 
strictest  teachings  of  Romish  belief,  was  so  im- 
pregnated with  its  doctrines  that,  as  he  him- 
self tells  us,  "  Pope  and  papal  Church  were 
not  so  papal  as  he." 

"  In  truth  the  papacy  was  not  and  is  not  so 
papal  as  my  heart  has  been,"  he  says,  "  for  so 
effectually  had  it  blinded  my  eyes  and  per- 
verted my  being,  that  if  any  person  had  been 
approved  by  the  Pope  he  appeared  to  me 
like   a    God,    and    if   any    one    said    or   did 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  i?i  France.  9 

anything  against  the  Pope,  or  his  authority,  I 
would  have  wished  such  an  one  to  be  ruined 
and  destroyed." ' 

It  was  some  time  before  either  he  or  Lefevre 
arrived  at  any  clear  understanding  of  the  truth. 
A  closer  study  of  the  Scriptures  had,  however, 
somewhat  shaken  Lefevre's  devotion  to  the 
teachings  of  the  Romish  Church  and,  laying 
aside  the  collection  of  the  legends  of  the  saints 
and  martyrs,  upon  which  he  had  been  engaged, 
he  turned  eagerly  to  the  study  of  the  Bible 
and.  in  1508,  completed  a  Latin  commentary 
upon  the  Psalms.2  Farel  too  had  begun  to 
study  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments  and  his 
belief  was  much  shaken  at  seeing  the  scriptural 
doctrines  so  different  from  those  in  which  he 
had  been  taught  to  have  faith.  "  Alas,"  said 
he,  fearing  to  read  more,3  "  I  do  not  well  under- 
stand these  things.  I  must  give  a  very  dif- 
ferent meaning  to  the  Scriptures  from  that 
which  they  seem  to  have.  I  must  keep  to  the 
interpretation  of  the  Church  and  indeed  of  the 

'  Farel,  Epistre  a  tons  Seigneurs  etPenples,  p.  164  (after  Baird,  p.  70). 

"  Le  premier  travail  que  Lefevre  entreprit  sur  la  Bible  fut  une 

edition  comparative  des  diffe'rentes  versions  latines  des  Psaumes  avec 

un  commentaire,  qu'  il  acheva  a  Saint-Germain-des-Pres,  en  1508." 

Graf,  Essai.  etc.,  p.  22. 

3  Oculos  demittens  visis  non  credebam. — Farellus  Natali  Galeoto. 


io  Essays  on  French  History. 

Pope,"  and  he  turned  again  with  greater  fer- 
vor to  his  Romish  devotion.  But  light  was 
now  coming  to  Lefevre,  and  by  means  of 
Lefevre  it  was  ere  long-  to  come  to  Farel. 

In  1 5 1 2,  Lefevre  published  his  famous  Com* 
mentary  tipon  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,1  con- 

1  "  Opinions  de  Lefevre  sur  les  Dogmes  et  les  Pratiques  de  l'Eglise 
dans  son  Commentaire  sur  les  Epitres  de  St.  Paul." — Graf ,  Essai, 
etc.,  pp.  61-80. 

"  It  is  interesting  to  examine,"  he  says,  "  what  his  opinions  were 
upon  some  of  the  principal  points  which  were  shortly  to  cause  such 
profound  schism  between  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  churches,  before 
the  time  when  Luther  put  his  hand  to  that  reformatory  movement  of 
which  men  had  for  so  long  felt  the  need.  We  find  these  opinions  in 
his  Commentary  upon  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  where,  without  ever 
passing  the  bounds  of  mildness  and  moderation,  he  does  not  fear  to 
openly  express  the  sentiments  which  the  study  of  the  Apostolic  writ- 
ings suggests  to  him.  He  is  far  from  having  a  doctrine  developed 
after  a  rigorous  manner  upon  the  reports  of  free  will  and  of  grace,  of 
faith  and  of  works,  but  in  following  the  precepts  of  Paul  he  does  not 
at  all  lose  sight  of  those  of  John  and  of  the  Evangelists.  '  As  Adam, 
by  the  sin  which  he  committed,  brought  death  upon  himself  and  thus 
gave  death  entrance  into  the  world,  thus  all  those  who  have  sinned 
— in  eo  in  quo  peccaveruut, — that  is  to  say  by  their  own  sin  or  by  the 
cause  of  their  own  sin,  have  brought  death  upon  themselves.  And 
thus  the  Apostle  does  not  appear  to  wish  to  say  that  all  have  sinned, 
since  he  adds  that  death  has  reigned  from  the  time  of  Adam  to  Moses 
upon  those  who  have  not  sinned.  Thus  they  who  have  not  sinned  at 
all  are  dead  also,  not  on  account  of  sin  but  from  likeness  to  the  dis- 
obedience of  Adam.  Christ  is  the  source  of  all  justification,  Adam 
the  covering  of  all  disobedience.  The  likeness  of  Christ  is  life,  the 
likeness  of  Adam,  death.  The  works  of  faith  are  the  signs  of  faith, 
of  a  living  faith  which  gives  justification.  There  are  here  two  parts; 
one  confines  itself  to  works,  the  other  to  faith  regardless  of  works. 
John  refutes  one,  Paul   the  other.     And  you,  if  you  have  honesty  of 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.         1 1 

cerning  which  he  wrote  to  Briconnet,1  Bishop 
of  Meaux,  on  the  15th  of  December  of  that 
year,  as  follows :  i  "  When  we  read  these 
commentaries  we  should  the  less  regard  the 
men  who  have  composed  them,  in  order  that 
we  may  the  more  find  in  them  signs  of  spirit- 
ual life  and  true  nourishment  for  the  soul.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  then  that  we  should  recognize 
the  divine  virtue  that  descends  from  on  high 
and  Him  from  whom  it  truly  proceeds,  and, 
having  recognized  it,  we  should  struggle  with 


heart,  will  have  confidence  neither  in  faith  nor  works,  but  in  God. 
Seek  first  to  obtain  the  salvation  of  God  by  faith  after  Paul  and  then 
add  works  to  faith  after  John,  since  they  are  the  signs  of  a  living 
faith.'  " 

1  "  Guillaume  Briconnet  etait  issu  d'une  famille  dont  plusieurs 
membres  s'etaient  illustres  dans  des  dignite's  eccle'siastiques  et  secu- 
liers  ;  il  etait  fils  de  Guillaume  Briconnet,  cardinal,  e'veque  de  Saint- 
Malo,  qui,  devenu  ensuite  archeveque  de  Rheims,  sacra  Louis  XII. 
en  14.9S,  et  mourut  comme  archeveque  de  Narbonne  en  15 14.  II  fut 
eleve  de  Lefevre  ainsi  que  son  cousin  Francois  Briconnet,  maitre  de  la 
chambre  aux  deniers  du  roi.  Comme  e'veque  de  Lodeve  il  s'enfermait 
souvent  des  journees  entieres  dans  son  cabinet  avec  Clitou,  pour 
gouter  a  loisir  les  plaisirs  de  l'etude.  En  1507  son  pere  en  passant  de 
l'archeveche  de  Rheims  a  celui  de  Narbonne,  lui  ce'da  1'abbaye  de 
Saint-Germain-des-Pres.  Briconnet  offrit  alors  a  Lefevre  un  asile  sur 
et  tranquille  dans  son  abbaye,  et  lui  fournit  tout  ce  dont  il  pouvait 
avoir  besoin  pour  s'occuper  uniquement  de  ses  etudes  et  de  ses  travaux 
literaires.  C'est  la  que  Lefevre  ecrivit  son  ouvrage  le  plus  impor- 
tant, son  Commentaire  sur  les  £piires  de  Saint-Paul,  ainsi  que  son 
Psautier  quintuple." — Graf,  Essai,  etc.,  pp.  II,  12. 

9  llerminjard,  Correspondance  des  Re'formateurs,  i.,  pp.  2-9. 


i  2  Essays  on  French  History. 

ourselves  that  we  may  follow  it  with  all  purity 
of  heart  and  with  all  the  piety  of  which  we  are 
capable,  since  that  is  the  only  means  of  ap- 
proaching Him  who  does  all  in  all.  The  world 
will  be  cursed  for  its  work  ;  it  will  never  yield 
anything  but  thorns  and  thistles  ;  consequently 
what  we  may  do  as  the  result  of  our  new  birth 
is  not  at  all  our  work  but  that  of  a  divine  bene- 
diction. Those  who  shall  comprehend  that 
these  Epistles  are  a  gift  from  God  will  make 
real  progress.  Since  Paul  is  but  an  instrument 
— '  You  seek  in  me,'  he  says  himself,  '  the 
proof  that  Christ  speaks  in  me.'  It  is  here  in 
fact  that  Christ's  doctrine  appears  and  not  that 
of  any  other.  It  follows  therefore  that  those 
who  shall  study  it  will  drink  with  joy,  as  the 
divine  oracle  says,  of  the  water  at  the  fountain- 
head  of  salvation.  Those  therefore  who  shall 
undertake  this  study  with  devout  sentiments 
will  make  progress  in  piety,  not  through  Paul, 
or  any  other  man,  but  through  Christ  and  His 
divine  Spirit." 

Simon,  in  his  Observations  on  the  New  Tes- 
tament, remarks  that  "Jacques  Lefevre  de- 
serves to  be  ranked  among  the  most  skilful 
commentators  of  the  age," 1  and  Merle  d' Au- 

1  D'Aubigne,  iii.,  p.  339  (note). 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.         i  3 

bigne  is  disposed  to  give  him  even  greater 
praise.  But,  however  worthy  of  commenda- 
tion he  may  have  been  as  a  commentator,  it  is 
certain  that  in  his  writings  upon  the  Pauline 
epistles  he  clearly  announces,  five  years  prior 
to  the  publication  of  Luther's  theses,  the  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  faith, — the  cardinal 
doctrine  of  the  Reformation. 

Lefevre's  writings,  however,  were  addressed 
to  scholars  and  to  men  of  letters  and  created 
no  such  loud-sounding  stir  as  did  Luther's  bold 
action  at  Wittenberg,  and  Lefevre  himself  was 
a  man  of  a  quiet  and  retiring  frame  of  mind, 
who,  at  this  time  and  for  several  years  after- 
ward, was  zealous  in  the  performance  of  the 
duties  demanded  of  him  by  the  Romish 
Church.  The  idea  of  engaging  in  any  open 
contest  with  that  Church  would  have  filled  him 
with  no  little  alarm.  His  work  was  to  prepare 
the  ground  and  sow  the  seed  ;  it  was  in  his 
ardent  and  courageous  pupil,  Guillaume  Farel, 
that  France  was  to  find  her  Luther.  But  the 
aged  Lefevre,  though  he  but  faintly  perceived 
how  the  light  just  then  breaking  was  to  in- 
crease, illuminating  the  darkness  of  superstition 
and  ignorance,  yet  felt  that  a  change  was  at 
hand,  and   Farel  was   much   impressed  by  the 


1 4  Essays  on  French  History. 

earnestness  with  which  he  one  day  took  him  by 
the  hand,  saying,  "  Guillaume,  the  world  is 
going  to  be  renewed,  and  you  will  see  it  !  "  ' 

What  was  the  condition  of  this  " world" 
whose  regeneration  was  thus  so  solemnly 
predicted  ? 

In  Rome,  Giovanni  de'  Medici,  under  his 
title  of  Leo  X.,  had  succeeded  the  Borgia  and 
Julius  II.  upon  the  papal  throne,  and  while 
Michael  Angelo  reared  the  great  dome  of 
Saint  Peter's  and  adorned  the  Sistine  Chapel 
with  its  glories,  and  Raphael  traced  his  fres- 
cos on  the  walls  of  the  Vatican,  Leo,  the 
profligate  patron  of  the  arts,  proceeded  to 
carry  out  his  maxim,  uttered  in  15 13  when  he 
received  the  news  of  his  election,  "Since  God 
has  given  us  the  papacy,  let  us  enjoy  it  !"  In 
Germany,  Maximilian,  King  of  the  Romans, 
was  still  hoping  to  get  himself  crowned,  and 
so  change  his  title  of  Imperator-Electus  into 
Imperator;  in  Spain,  Ferdinand  the  Catholic 
had  united  in  his  person  the  crowns  of  Aragon 
and  Castile  ;  in  England,  Henry  VIII.  had 
succeeded  his  father  upon  the  throne  of  the 
Tudors  ;  and  in  France,  Louis  XII.,  dying  on 
the  1  st  of  January,  15 15,  had  left  his  crown — 

1  Herminjard,  i.,  p.  481  ;  Farel  to  Pellican  (1556). 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  Fra?ice.         1 5 

a  splendid  New  Year's  gift — to  his  son-in-law, 
Francis  of  Valois,  the  young  and  dashing 
Count  of  Angouleme. 

Superstition,  idolatry,  ignorance,  and  misery 
darkened  all  these  lands. 

In  France,  the  belief  in  astrology  was  almost 
universal,  and  Nostradamus  and  like  pretend- 
ers gained  wealth  and  honor.  Sorcery,  by 
means  of  waxen  images,  and  the  pernicious 
credit  enjoyed  by  charms  and  incantations 
were  not  confined  to  the  poor  and  ignorant, 
but  found  favor  with  the  bourgeois  and  haute 
noblesse. 

Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land,  in  more  than  three  thousand  bishoprics, 
thirty  thousand  abbeys,  and  forty  thousand 
convents  were  heaped  up  the  pictures,  images, 
and  relics  of  the  saints.  In  one  church,  the 
hair  of  the  blessed  Virgin  received  humble 
adoration  ;  in  another,  the  sword  of  the  arch- 
angel Michael  was  reverently  regarded.  The 
cathedral  of  St.  Denis  gloried  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  entire  body  of  St.  Dionysius,  and 
it  would  have  gone  hard  with  any  unbeliever 
who  should  have  ventured  to  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that,  more  than  a  hundred  years  pre- 
viously, the  Pope  had  solemnly  declared  that 


1 6  Essays  on  French  History. 

the  good  town  of  Ratisbon  possessed  the  only 
true  entire  body  of  this  holy  saint.  Dionysius 
at  Ratisbon  received  no  greater  homage  than 
Dionysius  at  St.  Denis. 

The  arm  of  St.  Anthony  (which  unfortu- 
nately turned  out  later  to  be  the  bone  of  a 
deer)  was  highly  regarded  at  Geneva,  and  at 
Aries  the  people  rejoiced  in  the  possession 
of  the  very  stones  that  killed  St.  Stephen. 
Lyons,  however,  surpassed  all  competitors  and 
presented  to  her  faithful  flocks  no  less  a  rarity 
than  the  twelve  combs  of  the  Apostles,  which 
became  the  objects  of  special  veneration. 
Nails  and  pieces  of  the  true  cross  abounded 
everywhere,  and  numberless  miracles  stimu- 
lated the  popular  faith.  Even  superstitions  of 
heathen  origin  remained  undisturbed,  for 
homage  was  paid  to  Isis,  and  an  "  Apollo  re- 
ceived worship  at  Polignac."1 

The  Church  possessed  immense  riches,  and 
the  Venetian  Ambassador,  Michel  Surriano, 
has  estimated  that  out  of  the  total  revenue  of 
France,  then  amounting  to  fifteen  million 
golden  crowns,  six  millions  went  to  the  Church. 
Non-residence  was  a  standing  reproach  to  all 
the  clergy,  and  of  the  thirteen  French  cardi- 

1  Farel,  Du  Vray  Usage,  etc. 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.         i  7 

nals  in  the  papal  consistory  some  were  the 
incumbents  of  as  many  as  ten  bishoprics  and 
abbeys. 

The  archbishops,  bishops,  and  cardinals  lived 
at  Court ;  the  abbots  and  priors,  in  the  larger 
cities,  and  busy  in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  and 
self-aggrandizement  they  cared  nothing  for 
the  welfare  of  the  peoples  committed  to  their 
charge. 

The  typical  clergyman  of  that  day  was  a 
high  liver  ;  in  the  sumptuousness  of  his  table 
and  the  brilliancy  of  his  hunting  equipage  he 
frequently  surpassed  the  grand  seigneur,  and 
with  his  horses,  his  hounds,  his  wine,  and  his 
mistresses,  his  one  object  was  to  make  life  pass 
merrily.  All  matters  of  faith  were  discussed 
in  Latin,  as  this  language  alone  was  deemed 
worthy  of  such  honor.  French,  which  the 
common  people  could  understand,  was  gen- 
erally condemned,  and  to  the  reformers  be- 
longs the  honor  of  having  elevated  it  to  the 
highest  literary  uses. 

Such  was  the  state  of  religion  in  the  France 
of  1 5  1 5 — the  France  of  Jacques  Lefevre  and  of 
Guillaume  Farel. 

"It  is  sufficient  to  say,"  says  M.  Hermin- 
jard,  in  his   Correspondence  of  the  Reformers, 


1 8  Essays  on  French  History. 

"  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  symptoms, 
we  can  hardly  place  at  least  the  decisive  begin- 
nings of  the  French  Reformation  prior  to  the 
year  1520.  Until  about  that  period  Lefevre 
was  still  only  the  fore-runner.  The  sentiments 
and  convictions  manifested  in  his  Commentary 
of  1 51 2,  disclosed  without  doubt  a  spirit  much 
attracted  to  the  Gospel,  but  the  influence  of  that 
writing  was  very  restricted,  and  the  Sorbonne, 
far  from  condemning  the  doctrines  that  would 
infallibly  cause  the  book  to  produce  some  fer- 
mentation in  public  opinion,  contented  them- 
selves by  denouncing  that  portion  of  the  Com- 
mentary in  which  the  author  maintains  that  the 
Latin  translation  of  the  New  Testament  was 
the  work  of  St.  Jerome.  The  Conwientary  of 
15 12  was  but  the  very  imperfect  prelude  to  the 
Manifestation  of  the  Gospel."  1 

Although  Lefevre  had,  in  his  Commentary, 
clearly  stated  a  cardinal  point  of  the  Protest- 
ant doctrine,  yet  he  was  by  no  means  ready  to 
break  away  entirely  from  his  Romish  beliefs 
and  light  came  to  him  only  by  degrees.  In 
1 5 14,  he  was  still  steadfast  in  his  devotion  to 
images  and  pictures;  in  15 16,  Luther,  in  a 
letter  to  Spalatin, 2  stated  that  although  he  con- 

1  Herminjard,  i.,  p.  239  (note). 

5  Ibid.,  i.,  p.  26  (Luther  to  Spalatin,  Oct.  19,  15 16). 


Rise  of  the  Reformatitm  in  France.        19 

sidered  Lefevre  a  very  sincere  and  pious  man, 
yet  he  thought  him  deficient  in  apprehending 
spiritual  truth  ;  and  as  late  as  15 19,  Glareanus, 
writing  on  the  13th  of  January  to  Zwingli  at 
Zurich,  informed  him  that  Lefevre  had  besom 
a  legend  of  the  saints.  Farel  on  the  other 
hand,  owing  to  the  light  given  him  by  Lefevre, 
had  begun  to  study  the  Bible  earnestly  again, 
had  undertaken  as  well  the  study  of  Greek  and 
Hebrew,  and  was  now  making  rapid  progress. 
He  had  been  much  impressed  in  1 5  1 2  when  the 
young  Allmain,  doctor  in  the  Paris  University, 
had,  in  a  brilliant  speech  and  amid  much  ap- 
plause, refuted  the  assertions  of  the  Cardinal 
Thomas  de  Vio,  who  had  written  a  book  to 
prove  that  the  Pope  was  the  absolute  monarch 
of  the  Church.  "  It  was  necessary,"  says  Farel, 
"  that  popery  should  have  fallen  little  by  little 
from  my  heart,  for  it  did  not  tumble  down  at 
the  first  shock."  x 

It  was  by  means  of  Farel's  arguments  that, 
in  1 5 19,  Lefevre  was  finally  induced  to  abandon 
saint-worship  and  the  prayers  for  the  dead.2 
The  Picard  professor,  however,  soon  found  him- 
self in  difficult}'  with  the  Sorbonne.       In  the 

1  Farel,  A  tons  Seigneurs,  etc. 
•  Herminjard,  i.,  p.  41. 


20  Essays  on  French  History. 

year  1518,  he  had  published  a  treatise  entitled 
The  Three  Marys,  in  which  he  sought  to  prove 
that  Mary  the  sister  of  Lazarus,  Mary  Mag- 
dalene, and  "  the  woman  which  was  a  sinner," 
were  not  one  and  the  same  person,  as  people 
then  commonly  believed  them  to  be.  But  the 
Sorbonne  were  little  disposed  to  tolerate  this 
innovation.  On  the  31st  of  October,  151 7, 
Luther  had  nailed  his  ninety-five  theses  to  the 
church  door  at  Wittenberg  and  the  effect  of 
that  bold  act  had  been  to  shake  into  vigorous 
activity  all  the  theologians  of  Christendom, 
and  on  the  15  th  of  April,  1521,  the  Sorbonne 
had  solemnly  declared  Luther's  writings  to  be 
seductive,  contrary  to  Scripture,  a  denial  of  the 
first  principles  of  faith,  and  had  condemned 
them  to  be  burned.  They  had  compared  his 
last  work,  De  Captivitate  Babylonica,  to  the 
Alcoran,  and  announced  that  it  was  prepos- 
terous to  suppose  that  God  had,  after  so  many 
centuries,  destined  Martin  Luther  to  discover 
the  only  means  of  salvation,  and  that,  in  oppos- 
ing a  heresy  so  arrogant  and  impious,  discus- 
sion was  useless  ;  it  could  be  refuted  only  by  the 
ultima  ratio, — chains,  torture,  and  the  stake. 
The  Sorbonne,  therefore,  were  not  in  a  frame 
of  mind  to  countenance  any  departure  from  es- 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.         2  1 

tablished  doctrine,  however  slight,  and,  more- 
over, it  was  an  unpardonable  offence  in  their 
eyes  that  Jacques  Lefevre,  "  a  simple  Master 
of  Arts,  should  presume  to  investigate  matters 
that  they  considered  fell  to  the  province  of 
Doctors  of  Theology  alone."  '  Consequently  on 
the  9th  of  November,  152 1,  they  declared  that 
whoever  should  maintain  the  truth  of  Lefevre's 
proposition  was  a  heretic,  and  it  might  have 
eone  hard  with  Lefevre  himself  had  not  Guil- 
laume  Petit,  the  King's  confessor,  induced 
royalty  to  interfere  in  his    behalf. 

In  the  year  1521,  the  diocese  of  Meaux,  a 
little  over  twenty  miles  from  Paris,  had  as  its 
bishop  a  certain  Guillaume  Briconnet,  son  of 
the  old  Cardinal  of  St.  Malo  who  had  been 
Archbishop  of  Rheims  and,  in  virtue  of  that 
dignity,  had  anointed  King  Louis  XII.  at  his 
coronation.  The  Cardinal  was  now  dead,  but 
his  son  had  inherited  a  good  measure  of  the 
royal  favor  his  father  had  enjoyed  and,  having 
been  created  Archdeacon  of  Rheims  and  Abbot 
of  St.  Germain-des-Prds,  he  had  been  appointed, 

1  Herminjard,  i.,  p.  51  (  H.  C.  Agrippa,  1519).  As  it  clearly 
appears  that  Lefevre  was  not  a  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  Professor 
Soldan  is  mistaken  in  saying:  "  Sett  i^gj  kbte  er  ah  Doctor  dtr 
Tfuologie  ztt  Paris."  "  The  error  is  of  long  standing." — Baird,  i., 
p.  72  'note). 


22  Essays  on  French  History. 

in   March,    1516,   Bishop  of   Meaux  by   King 
Francis  I. 

Shortly  after,  he  had  been  sent  as  special 
French  envoy  to  the  Court  of  Rome,  and  a 
close  aquaintance  with  the  papal  Church  had 
revealed  to  him  many  things  in  which  he 
thought  there  was  urgent  need  of  reform. 
Upon  returning  to  his  diocese  he  determined 
to  begin  there  his  work  of  reformation.  Who, 
among  his  friends,  could  better  assist  him  in 
his  task,  than  the  learned  Jacques  Lefevre 
d'Etaples,  whose  zeal  he  well  knew,  and  with 
whose  writings  he  was  well  acquainted  ?  He 
therefore  sent  an  invitation  to  Lefevre  to  come 
to  Meaux  and  aid  him  in  his  work,  and  Lefevre, 
who  was  weary  of  the  denunciations  of  the 
Sorbonne  and  of  the  outcry  against  Luther 
and  his  doctrines  with  which  Paris  was  filled,1 
was  glad  to  accept  his  offer. 

In  the  summer  of  1 521  he  went,  therefore,  to 
Meaux,  and  was  soon  joined  there  by  Farel, 
Michel  d'Arande,  Gerard  Roussel,  and  some  of 
his  other  pupils. 

From  the  time  when  the  reformers  made 
their  appearance  in  Meaux  new  activity  was 
awakened  in  the  religious  life  of  the  diocese. 

1  Herminjard,  i.,  p.  71  (Glareanus  to  Zwingli,  July  4,  15-1)- 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.        23 

The  pulpits  were  now  no  longer  filled,  as  for- 
merly, with  mendicant  monks,  begging  con- 
tributions and  relating  stories  from  the  Golden 
Legend^  but  with  zealous  preachers  who  ex- 
plained the  Gospel.  The  new-born  zeal  of 
Bishop  Briconnet,  too,  had  received  much 
encouragement  from  the  fact  that  since  Le- 
fevre's  arrival  he  had  been  visited,  in  October, 
1 52 1,  by  Louisa  of  Savoy  and  her  daughter, 
the  Princess  Margaret  of  Angouleme,  the 
mother  and  sister  of  King  Francis,  who  had 
confirmed  him  in  his  projected  reforms  and 
promised  him  their  support.  In  confirmation 
of  this  promise,  Margaret  had  written  him  in 
November  as  follows  :  "  Be  assured  that  the 
King  and  Madame  have  fully  decided  to  let  it 
be  understood  that  the  truth  of  God  is  not  at 
all  heresy,"  '  and,  in  December,  she  had  written 
again  :  "  Your  pious  wishes  for  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  Church  are  more  than  ever  desired 
by  Madame  and  the  King."1 

And  now  let  us  leave  the  reformers  to  begin 
their  work  at  Meaux  under  the  powerful  pat- 
ronage of  Bishop  Briconnet,  who  was  delight- 
ing in  his  sunshine  of  royal  approval,  while  we 

1  Herminjard,  i.,  pp.  78,  84  (Margaret  to  Briconnet,  Nov.,  Dec, 
1521). 


24  Essays  on  French  History. 

glance  for  a  moment  at  the  writer  of  these 
letters,  and  at  "  Madame  and  the  King." 

Margaret  of  Valois,  born  at  Angouleme  on 
the  nth  of  April,  1492,  had  passed  her  child- 
hood in  the  city  of  her  birth.  Her  mother, 
Louisa  of  Savoy,  a  woman  of  vigorous  tempera- 
ment, was  possessed  with  great  desire  for  power, 
and  since,  in  her  opinion,  Louis  XII.,  in  his 
pliability  toward  his  Parliament,  had  resigned 
too  many  of  the  rights  of  the  Crown,  she  had, 
during  the  latter  years  of  his  reign,  been  in 
open  opposition  to  the  Court.  Margaret,  if 
her  portraits  speak  truly,  was  not  handsome  ; 
her  features  were  large,  and  her  nose  almost  as 
conspicuous  as  the  one  which  gained  her  brother 
Francis  his  famous  sobriquet  of  le  rot  au  long 
nez,  but  the  good  qualities  of  her  heart  gave  to 
her  countenance  a  sweetness  of  expression  that 
might  sometimes  take  the  place  of  beauty. 

She  had  early  applied  herself  to  study,  had 
become  proficient  in  German  and  in  Latin,  and 
knew  something  of  Greek  and  Hebrew.  She 
was  somewhat  of  a  poet,  too,  and  her  intercourse 
with  the  greatest  living  literary  lights  of  her 
day  had  made  her  a  writer  of  no  mean  preten- 
sions, as  she  was  one  day  to  give  proof  in  her 
Heptameron,  that  compendium  of  vice  and  vir- 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.         25 

tue,  of  religious  exhortation  and  of  tap-room 
stories,  in  the  combination  of  which  the  author's 
purpose  still  remains  a  riddle.1  She  had  been 
married,  in  1509,  to  the  Due  d'Alencon,  who 
was  ere  long  to  prove  himself  a  coward  on  the 
battle-field  of  Pavia  and  die  disgraced  at  Lyons, 
and  then  she  was  to  wed  King  Henri  d'Albret 
and,  in  her  little  kingdom  near  the  Pyrenees, 
offer  Lefevre  a  refuge  in  his  old  age,  rear  her 
daughter,  Jeanne  d'Albret,  to  womanhood,  and 
have  one  day  a  grandson  who  would  prove 
himself  a  gallant  soldier,  find  "  Paris  worth  a 
mass,"  set  up  a  Bourbon  dynasty,  and  become 
the  white-plumed  knight  of  Ivry,  King  Henry 
of  Navarre. 

Her  brother  Francis,  Count  of  Angfouleme, 
had  been  born  at  Cognac  on  the  12th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1494,  and  was,  therefore,  in  his  twenty- 
first  year  when  he  succeeded  Louis  XII.  on 
the  French  throne.  His  tall  figure,  broad 
shoulders,  long  brown  hair,  ruddy  complexion, 
and  princely  bearing,  all  betokened  health,  en- 
joyment of  life,  and  consciousness  of  his  royal 
position.  He  delighted  in  the  chase,  and 
none,  save  perhaps  his  friend  La  Marck,  "  the 

1  See  remarks  of  Mr.  Baird  on  the  Heptameron  in  his  Rise  of  the 
Huguenots,  pp.  119-121  (note). 


26  Essays  on  French  History. 

Boar  of  the  Ardennes,"  followed  it  more  fear- 
lessly. He  excelled,  too,  in  knightly  feats  of 
arms  and  could  break  a  lance  with  the  most 
skilful  of  his  Court.  To  his  valor  he  added  a 
taste  for  letters,  patronized  artists  and  scholars, 
declared  Leonardo  da  Vinci  to  be  the  most 
learned  man  he  knew,  had  Serlio  and  Rosso 
rear  and  adorn  his  palaces,  and,  in  his  castles 
of  Chambord,  Fontainebleau,  and  Amboise, 
collected  about  him  a  brilliant  Court  which 
displayed  much  of  that  splendor  which  was  to 
become  so  marked  a  feature  of  the  French 
nobility,  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  in 
the  reign  of  the  Grand  Monarque. 

It  was  a  great  blow  to  Francis's  pride  when 
he  lost  the  election  to  the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
in  1 5 19,  and,  although  he  told  Charles  V.'s 
ambassadors  that  Charles  and  he  were  "  like 
two  friends  in  love  with  the  same  lady,  and 
that  whichever  one  she  accepted,  the  other 
must  submit  and  not  feel  hurt,"  1  he  was  far 
from  acquiescing  thus  in  his  defeat.  From 
that  time  a  struggle  for  supremacy  began  be- 
tween them — a  struggle  in  which  the  cool, 
calculating  Charles,  and  not  the  bold,  im- 
petuous  Francis,    reaped    the    solid    fruits    of 

1  Sismondi,  Histoire  de  France,  tome  xi.,  p.  218. 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.        27 

victory.  As  may  be  imagined,  Francis  had 
no  very  deep  religious  convictions.  He  was 
not  particularly  attached  to  the  Romish  Church 
or  to  the  Pope,  and  he  looked  with  contempt 
upon  the  ignorant  monks.  The  new  doctrines 
appeared,  at  first,  somewhat  attractive  to  him 
from  the  fact  that  they  were  generally  pre- 
sented by  men  of  learning,  but  circumstances 
soon  tended  to  destroy  this  favorable  im- 
pression. He  was  constantly  reminded,  by 
those  whose  interest  it  was  to  do  so,  that 
"  a  change  of  religion  necessarilv  involved  a 
change  of  prince " — a  false  political  maxim 
made  much  of  in  that  century.  The  papal 
Nuncio,  too, — when  Francis,  in  a  fit  of  anger 
against  the  Pope,  one  day  told  him  that 
he  might  follow  Henry  VIII.'s  example  and 
permit  the  spread  of  the  new  doctrines  in 
France, — answered  craftily  :  "  Sire,  to  speak 
with  all  frankness,  you  would  be  the  first  to 
repent  your  rash  step.  Your  loss  would  be 
greater  than  the  Pope's,  for  a  new  religion, 
established  in  the  midst  of  a  people,  involves 
nothing  short  of  a  change  of  prince." 

This  reasoning  had  much  weight  with 
Francis,  who  meant  to  have  no  change  of 
prince   while   he  lived,  and  whose    theory    of 


28  Essays  on  French  History. 

absolute  government  was  summed  up  in  the 
reply  he  made  to  Charles  V.  who,  when 
in  France,  asked  him  what  revenue  he  de- 
rived from  certain  towns  and  received  the 
prompt  answer,  Ce  que  je  veux  ! — (What  I 
please).1  But  though  Francis  had  no  great 
regard  for  the  Romish  Church  he  was  anxious 
to  take  advantage  of  the  influence  that  the 
Pope  exerted  on  European  politics,  and, 
moreover,  the  strict  code  of  morals  established 
by  the  reformers  was  not  pleasing  to  a  mon- 
arch who  was  accustomed  openly  to  neglect 
his  wife  and  bow  at  the  shrine  of  Madame  la 
Duchesse  d'  Etampes,  of  Diane  de  Poitiers, 
or  of  some  other  fair  lady  of  his  Court.  Thus 
these  various  influences  combined  to  cause  a 
prince,  who  had  many  good  qualities — who, 
according  to  even  the  biographer2  of  his  im- 
perial rival,  was  "  humane,  beneficent,  gener- 
ous, and  possessed  dignity  without  pride, 
affability  free  from  meanness,  and  courtesy 
exempt  from  deceit " — to  become,  against  his 
better  inclinations  and  sometimes  his  own  ad- 
vantage, the  persecutor  and  enemy  of  the  re- 


1  Cayet,  Hisloire  de  la  Guerre  sous  Henri  IV.  (after  Baird). 
-  Robertson,  Charles  V.,  Hi.,  p.  396,  (after  Baird,  p.  101). 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.         29 

formed   faith   which   he   had   at    first    seemed 
much  disposed  to  favor. 

Shortly  after  his  arrival  at  Meaux,  Lefevre, 
who  had  relinquished  to  his  friends  and  fol- 
lowers the  more  active  work  of  preaching, 
began  the  task  of  translating  the  Bible  from 
the  Latin  Vulgate  into  the  French  language.  1 
In  that  day  scholars  only  could  gain  a  know- 
ledge of  the  Bible  by  reading  the  Latin  Vulgate, 
and  the  common  people,  who  understood 
French  alone,  had  at  their  disposal  nothing 
but  an  incomplete  version  in  which  text  and 
gloss  were  badly  mixed.  On  the  8th  of  June, 
1523, 2  Lefevre  published  a  translation  of  the 
four  Gospels,  and  later  in  the  same  year  the 
remainder  of  the  New  Testament,  and  five 
years  after,  in  1528,  he  added  a  translation  of 
the  Old  Testament. 

1  "  The  only  printed  work  in  favor  of  which  the  claim  of  Lefevre's 
translation  to  be  the  oldest  in  the  French  language  could  be  disputed  is 
the  Bible  of  Guyarsdes  Moulins,  finished  in  1297,  and  printed  by  order 
of  Charles  VIII.,  in  14S7  ;  but  the  greater  part  of  this  is  a  free  transla- 
tion, not  of  the  Scriptures  themselves,  but  of  a  summary — the  His- 
toria  Scholastica  of  Pierre  le  Mengeur  (latinized  Comestor) — and  is 
consequently  no  Bible  at  all.  See  M.  Chas.  Read,  in  Bulletin,  i., 
76,  who  remarks  that  '  everything  considered,  it  may  therefore  be 
asserted  that  the  translations  of  Lefevre  d'  Etaples  and  of  Olivetanus 
are  the  first  versions  without  embellishment  or  gloss  (tioti  historie'es 
et  non  glosse'es).' " — Baird,  p.  78,  (note). 

2  Brunet's  Manuel,  vol.  v.,  p.  747. 


30  Essays  on  French  History. 

"It  was  a  magnificent  undertaking,"  says 
Baird,  "and  prompted  by  a  fervent  desire  to 
promote  the  spiritual  interests  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen.  In  its  execution,  the  inaccura- 
cies incident  to  so  novel  an  enterprise,  and 
the  comparative  harshness  of  the  style,  can 
readily  be  forgiven.  For,  aside  from  its  own 
merits,  the  version  of  Lefevre  d'Etaples  formed 
the  basis  for  the  subsequent  version  of  Robert 
Olivetanus." 1    This  publication   of  the  Scrip- 

1  Graf,  in  his  article  on  Jacobus  Faber  Stapulensis  (Ntedner,  Zeit- 
schrift  fur  die  Hist.  Theologie,  1852,  pp.  215-221),  gives  us  the  fol- 
lowing facts  regarding  the  translation  of  Olivetanus.  The  year 
following  the  Antwerp  Bible  (1534),  which  was  the  second  edition 
of  Lefevre's  Bible,  Robert  Olivetanus  published  at  Neuenburg  a 
French  translation  of  the  Bible.  In  the  preface  to  it  he  referred  to 
several  Greek  translations,  Latin  translations,  three  German  trans- 
lations, two  Italian  translations,  and  several  of  other  peoples,  but  it 
is  curious  that,  among  all  these,  no  mention  is  made  of  any  translation 
in  French.  Olivetanus  pretends  to  have  translated  it  in  one  year. 
Upon  comparing  it  with  Lefevre's  Bible  we  find  a  difference  in  the 
arrangement  of  the  books.  In  the  Old  Testament  of  Lefevre,  the 
Apocrypha  is  arranged  as  in  the  Vulgate,  while  in  the  version  of 
Olivetanus  the  Apocrypha  is  separated  and  put  after  the  Canonical 
books.  In  the  translation  of  the  New  Testament  of  Olivetanus  we 
find  only  that  of  Faber  (Lefevre)  partly  unchanged  ;  partly  improved 
(after  Erasmus) — [Die  Uebcrsetzung  des  Nenen  Testaments  ttnveran- 
dert,  theils  gans,  bei  Olivetan  istaber  nichts  anderes  als  die  des  Faber, 
iheils  nach  Erasmus  verbessert. — Ibid.,  p.  218).  There  are,  in  the 
version  of  Olivetanus,  very  few  traces  that  tend  to  show  that  he 
compared  his  work  with  the  Greek  text.  Wherever  a  change  is  found 
it  is  generally  a  slavish  copying  of  Erasmus,  carried  even  to  the  point 
of  inserting  his  mistakes.     The  Apocrypha,  in  Olivetanus's  version,  is 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.       3 1 

tures  aroused  great  enthusiasm  among  the 
common  people.  Copies  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment were  eagerly  bought,  and  Bishop  Bricon- 
net,  in  many  cases,  supplied  those  who  could 
not  afford  to  purchase  them.  The  people 
heard  now,  with  wonder  and  joy,  the  Bible 
read  in  the  churches  in  a  language  they  could 
understand. 

"  How  can  we  help  rejoicing,"  wrote  Lefevre 
to  Farel  in  1524,  "when  we  see  the  pure 
knowledge  of  Christ  already  scattered  abroad 
in  a  great  part  of  Europe  ?  I  have  also  some 
good  news  to  give  you.  The  New  Testament, 
translated  into  French,  has  been  received  with 
extraordinary  eagerness  by  the  simple  people 

simply  a  reprint  of  Lefevre  even  where  the  sense  of  the  original  is 
quite  mistaken.  The  few  changes  are  merely  improvements  in 
French  expressions.  In  short  Olivetanus's  version  is,  in  the  Old 
Testament,  original,  for  he  did  this  from  the  Hebrew  with  the  help 
of  a  Latin  translation  of  Santes  Pagninus,  and  he  was  evidently  a 
much  better  scholar  in  Hebrew  than  in  Greek  ;  his  Apocrypha  is  a 
copy  of  Lefevre's,  and  his  New  Testament  is  after  Lefevre's,  changed 
somewhat  by  following  Erasmus.  At  present  the  common  Bibles 
used  in  France  (among  Protestants)  are  the  later  revisions  of  Martin 
and  of  Ostervald,  which  are  not  so  much  improvements,  from  a 
scholarly  point  of  view,  as  paler  reproductions  of  the  originals.  Cal- 
vin improved  Olivetanus's  translation,  and,  in  1 551 ,  Olivetanus's  trans- 
lation of  the  Psalms  was  replaced  by  one  of  Budaeus.  In  1560, 
Faber's  translation  of  the  Apocrypha  was  replaced  by  one  by  Beza. 
Beza  and  Calvin  several  times  revised  the  New  Testament,  and  in 
1588,  Bertram  issued  a  thorough  revision  of  the  whole  Bible. 


32  Essays  on  French  History. 

of  our  diocese  to  whom  it  is  read  on  Sundays 
and  fete-days.  The  King  has  removed  the  ob- 
stacles which  certain  persons  desired  to  place 
in  the  way  of  this  diffusion  of  the  Word."1 

But  the  Romish  Church,  with  its  great  pos- 
sessions, its  political  influence,  its  pomp,  and 
its  prestige,  was  not  to  give  way  to  the  spread 
of  new  doctrines  without  tremendous  resist- 
ance. When  upon  one  occasion  Lefevre,  in 
a  dispute  with  some  of  the  staunch  supporters 
of  the  old  order  of  things,  remarked  that  "  the 
Gospel  was  already  winning  the  hearts  of 
nobles  and  common  people  alike,  and  that 
soon  it  would  spread  all  over  France,  casting 
down  the  inventions  which  the  hand  of  man 
had  set  up,"  the  Dominican  monk,  De  Roma, 
answered  him  angrily.  "  In  that  event,"  he 
cried,  "  I  and  others  like  me  will  preach  a  cru- 
sade and  drive  the  King  from  his  kingdom  by 
means  of  his  own  subjects  if  he  permits  the 
Gospel  to  be  preached!"'  It  was  the  same 
threat  that  the  papal  Nuncio  had  intended  to 
convey  when  he  remarked  to  Francis,  "  Sire, 
a  new  religion  involves  nothing  short  of  a 
change  of  prince." 

1  Herminjard,  i.,  p.  220  (Lefevre  to  Farel). 
*  Ibid.,  p.  483- 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.       53 

This  language  of  De  Roma  was  pleasing  to 
the  Franciscans,  who  were  violently  opposed 
to  the  reformers  and  whose  animosity  had 
been  increased  by  the  fact  that  Bishop  Bricon- 
net  had  prohibited  them  from  entering  any 
pulpit  within  his  jurisdiction.  They  sought 
the  aid  of  the  University  of  Paris  and  of  Par- 
liament, and  the  Sorbonne,  who  had  been  de- 
nounced as  "Pharisees"  and  "false  prophets" 
by  the  Bishop  of  Meaux,  were  very  ready  to 
aid  them  in  attacking  him  and  his  reformers 
vigorously. 

Before  the  combined  attacks  of  his  enemies, 
Bishop  Bric,onnet  gave  way.  His  faith  had 
never  been  of  the  firmest  and,  upon  the  evi- 
dence of  a  strong  supporter  of  the  Romish 
Church,  we  are  told  that  early  in  his  reformed 
preaching  he  gave  his  congregation  the  follow- 
ing warning  :  "  Even  should  I,  your  Bishop, 
change  my  speech  and  teaching,  beware  you 
change  not  with  me!"1  He  could  not  now, 
in  the  face  of  Romish  opposition,  follow  the 
example  Luther  had  set,  in  1 5 2 1 ,  at  the  Diet  of 
Worms,  when,  before  emperor,  papal  legates, 
bishops,  cardinals,  and  electors,  he  had  uttered 

1  Fontaine,  Hisioirc  Catholiqtie  (after  Merle  d'Aubignc),  and  Her- 
minjard,  i.,  p.  158. 
3 


34  Essays  on  French  History. 

his  memorable,  "  Hie  stehe  ich,  ich  kann  nicht 
anders,  Gott  he  If  mir,  Amen  /"  ("  Here  I 
stand,  I  cannot  do  otherwise,  God  help  me, 
Amen  !  ")'  Bishop  Briconnet  therefore  wavered 
and  finally  yielded  entirely  and  permitted  to  be 
published  in  his  name  pastoral  letters  which 
condemned  and  denounced  Martin  Luther  and 
his  works. 

The  first  of  these — a  "Synodal  Decree" — 
declared  Luther  to  be  a  man  plotting  to  over- 
throw "  the  estate  which  keeps  all  the  rest  in 
the  path  of  duty,"  {L  etat  qui  contient  tons  les 
autres  dans  le  devoir) 2 ;  and  another  denounced 
certain  preachers  who,  "  brought  in  by  himself 
to  share  his  pastoral  cares,  had  dared,  in  de- 
fiance of  the  evangelical  truth,  to  preach  that 
purgatory  does  not  exist,  and  that,  conse- 
quently, we  must  not  pray  for  the  dead,  nor 
invoke  the  very  holy  Virgin  Mary  and  the 
saints"3;  while  a  third,  which  revoked  the 
powers  granted  to  "  Lutheran  preachers,"  was 
as  follows  :  "  There  can  be  no  better  occasion 
to  observe  with  profit  this  sacred  and  inviolable 
decree  than  at  the  present  time  when  the  Lu- 

1  Gieseler,  vol.  iv.,  p.  57  (note). 
8  Herminjard,  i.,  p.  154. 
3  Ibid.,  p.  156. 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.       35 

theran  plague  has  increased  beyond  measure 
and  will  go  on  scattering  its  poison  everywhere 
unless  we  firmly  check  the  violence  of  its  course 
by  the  remedy  necessary  for  so  great  an  evil. 
For  these  reasons  we  write  to  you  all  in  gen- 
eral, and  to  each  of  you  in  particular,  and,  by 
the  terror  of  these  presents,  expressly  prohibit 
you,  under  pain  of  excommunication  and  ana- 
thema, from  allowing  to  preach  in  your  pulpits 
Lutherans  of  this  sort,  and  all  others,  of  what- 
ever degree  of  pre-eminence  or  quality  they 
may  be,  who  make  profession  of  the  same  doc- 
trines which  are  to  remain  unknown  to  you."1 
Though  the  first  two  of  these  documents  bear 
date  of  October  15,  1523,  and  the  last  that  of 
December  13th,  of  the  same  year,  the  time  of 
their  actual  publication  is  involved  in  some 
obscurity.  It  is  probable  that  it  should  be 
placed  nearly  two  years  later.  Even  at  the 
close  of  1524,  if  we  may  believe  a  letter  of 
Pierre  de  Sebeville,  written  on  the  28th  of 
December,  Lefevreand  Briconnet  were  "  break- 
ing images  in  the  churches  at  Meaux."2 

Briconnet's     defection     compelled     the     re- 
formers, whom  he  had  invited  to  assist  him, 

1  Herminjard,  i.,  p.  171. 

8 Ibid.,  p.  315  (Sebeville  au  Coct,  Dec.  28,  1524). 


36  Essays  on  French  History. 

to  depart  from  Meaux.  Farel  had  apparently 
left  as  early  as  1523,  though  "neither  the 
reason  nor  the  precise  time  of  his  departure  is 
known/' *  and  after  visiting  his  native  Dauphin^ 
he  had  gone  to  Switzerland  and  begun  his 
labors  at  Basle  and  Strasbourg.  The  year 
1525,  therefore,  opened  gloomily  for  the  re- 
formers,— Briconnet  was  returning  to  his  old 
faith,  Lefevre  was  becoming  intimidated  at 
the  outcry  raised  against  him,  Farel  had  been 
compelled  to  depart, — and  for  France  the  new 
year  soon  proved  even  more  disastrous.  On 
the  24th  of  February  the  French,  who  had 
gone  forth  hoping  to  repeat  in  Italy  the 
triumphs  of  15 15  and  win  another  Marignano, 
had  met,  instead,  complete  defeat  at  Pavia. 
The  gallant  army  that  had  passed  the  Alps 
was  lost  ;  and  Francis,  fighting  bravely  until 
thrown  from  his  horse,  had  been  compelled  to 
surrender  his  sword  to  Charles  Lannoy,  of 
Naples,  and,  with  all  his  dreams  of  conquest 
vanished,  found  himself  a  prisoner  in  the 
hands  of  his  Imperial  rival,  the  Emperor 
Charles  of  Spain. 

In   this   predicament   he  announced   to   his 
regent-mother,  Louisa  of  Savoy,  the  extent  of 

1  Baird,  i.,  p.  83,  note. 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.       t>7 

his  misfortunes,  not  in  the  traditional  sentence, 
Tout  est  per  cite  fors  £  honncur  ("All  is  lost 
save  honor"),  but  in  the  following  letter: 
*'  Madame,  that  you  may  know  to  what  extent 
I  have  suffered  misfortune,  of  all  things  there 
is  nothing  left  me  but  honor  and  life  saved."  ' 
On  a  Sunday  in  March,  1525,  a  paper  was 
distributed  in  the  churches  of  Paris  which 
asked  and  answered  the  following  question  : 
"  Do  you  wish  to  know  who  is  to  blame  for 
all  our  misfortunes  ?  Well,  it  is  Lady  Ambi- 
tion and  her  Chancellor."  a  Thus  it  designated 
the  Regent,  Louisa  of  Savoy,  and  the  Chancel- 
lor, Duprat,  Archbishop  of  Sens.  The  policy 
of  the  Government,  after  the  disasters  of  1525, 
was  no  longer  one  of  tolerance  toward  the 
reformed  faith.  The  advisers  of  the  Regent 
were  not  slow  in  telling  her  that  the  mis- 
fortunes  of  France  were  a  divine  punishment 
upon  Francis  for  having  tolerated  "  heresy." 
Had  he  endeavored  vigorously  to  repress  it 
in  the  start,  he  would  not  now,  they  argued, 
be  prisoner  at  Madrid.  And  if  she  desired  a 
return  of  the  divine  blessing,  she  must  prove 

1  P^piers  d'£tatdu  Card,  de  Granvelle,  i.,  p.  258  (after  Baird,  173, 
note). 

9  Ranke,  Civil  Wars  and  Monarchy  in  France,  p.  95. 


38  Essays  on  French  History. 

herself  a  good  Catholic  and  take  measures  to 
crush  utterly  the  damnable  doctrines  of  Luther 
throughout  her  realm.  These  arguments  had 
much  weight  with  the  Regent,  who  felt  that 
"the  support  of  Clement  VII.,  now  specially 
needed  in  the  delicate  diplomacy  lying  imme- 
diately before  her,  could  best  be  secured  by 
proving  to  the  Pontiff's  satisfaction  that  the 
House  of  Valois  was  clear  of  all  suspicion  of 
harboring  or  fostering  the  Lutheran  doctrines 
and  their  adherents."  1 

A  commission,  which  was  in  reality  a  form 
of  the  Inquisition  and  contained  many  of  its 
objectionable  features,  was  appointed  by  the 
Parliament  of  Paris  toward  the  close  of  March, 
1525,  and  Pope  Clement  VII.  soon  gave  them 
his  unqualified  approval.  They  ordered  Jac- 
ques Lefevre  to  appear  before  them  and 
commanded  Gerard  Roussel  to  be  seized 
wherever  found,  even  at  the  altar  (etiam  in 
loco  sacro).2  Thus  beset  by  dangers  these  re- 
formers, in  October,  1525,  left  Meaux  and 
sought  refuge  at  Strasbourg.  There  Lefevre 
met  again  his  pupil  Guillaume  Farel,  who  was 
ardently    beginning    his    labors     in     French 

1  Baird,  p.  124. 

2  Registres  du  Parlement,  Oct.  3,  1525  (after  Baird,  p.  S±,  note). 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.       39 

Switzerland.  But  the  now  aged  Lefevre 
lacked  the  courage  of  his  more  fearless 
disciple,  and,  while  Farel  pushed  on  his  work 
with  eagerness,  Lefevre  drew  back,  since  he 
feared  to  break  the  last  tie  which  bound  him 
to  the  Church  of  Rome.  "  I  have  spoken  to 
Lefevre  and  Roussel,"  wrote  Pierre  Toussain 
some  few  months  later  to  GEcolampadius,1 
"  but  certainly  Lefevre  has  not  a  particle  of 
courage.  May  God  confirm  and  strengthen 
him  !  Let  them  be  as  wise  as  they  please,  let 
them  wait,  procrastinate,  and  disseminate  ;  the 
Gospel  will  never  be  preached  without  the 
Cross  !  When  I  see  these  things,  when  I  see 
the  mind  of  the  King,  the  mind  of  the  Duchess 
(Margaret  of  Angouleme),  as  favorable  as 
possible  to  the  advancement  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  and  those  who  ought  to  forward  this 
matter,  according  to  the  grace  given  them, 
obstructing  their  design,  I  cannot  refrain  from 
tears.  They  say,  indeed  :  '  It  is  not  yet  time, 
the  hour  has  not  come  ! '  And  yet  we  have 
here  no  day  or  hour.  What  would  not  you 
do  had  you  the  Emperor  and  Ferdinand 
favoring  your  attempts  ?     Entreat  God,  there- 

1  Herminjard,  i.,  p.  447  ;   Pierre  Toussain  to  CEcolampadius,  Mal- 
esherbes  (July  26,  152O.     Trans,  after  Baird,  i.,  p.  S6. 


40  Essays  on  French  History. 

fore,  in  behalf  of  France,  that  she  may  at 
length  be  worthy  of  His  word." 

And  now  the  name  of  Jacques  Lefevre,  long 
the  guiding  light  of  the  French  reformers,  dis- 
appears from  the  history  of  the  Reformation. 
The  Sorbonne  condemned  his  works  and  al- 
though Francis,  from  his  prison  at  Madrid, 
wrote  them,  on  the  12th  of  November,  1525, 
to  cease  all  proceedings  against  this  man  "  of 
great  and  good  renown,"  the  Sorbonne  refused 
to  obey  the  captive  monarch's  order.1 

In  1526,  when  Francis  had  regained  his  lib- 
erty— by  that  famous  oath  to  surrender  Bur- 
gundy, an  oath  to  which  he  coupled  the  mental 
reservation  to  break  it  upon  the  first  favorable 
opportunity, — he  recalled  Lefevre,  appointed 
him  tutor  to  the  Dauphin,  and  later,  upon 
Margaret's  intercession,  made  him  royal  li- 
brarian at  the  Castle  of  Blois.  But  the  aeed 
scholar  was  still  too  near  Paris  to  be  free  from 
the  attacks  of  his  enemies,  and  Margaret, 
having  become  Queen  of  Navarre,  obtained 
her  brother's  permission  to  have  Lefevre  ac- 
company her  to  her  Gascogne  kingdom,  where 
he  passed  quietly  the  few  remaining  years  of 
his  life,2  not,  however,  being  free  from  remorse 

1  Haag,  La  France  Protestante  (after  Baird,  p.  93  and  note). 

2  He  died  at  Nerac  in  1536. 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.        41 

and  sorrow  at  the  thought  that,  through  his 
want  of  courage  in  behalf  of  the  Gospel,  he 
had  failed  to  win  the  glory  of  a  "  martyr's 
crown."  ' 

The  year  1534 — the  "Year  of  the  Placards," 
as  it  is  called — marks  an  epoch  in  the  history 
of  the  French  Reformation,  and  it  is  curious 
to  note  that,  even  at  this  late  date,  there  were 
some,  and  they,  too,  sincere  partisans  of  their 
respective  causes,  who  thought  that  the  re- 
formers and  the  papal  Church,  in  spite  of  their 
widely  dissimilar  and  conflicting  opinions,  might 
still  be  reconciled. 

It  was  with  this  idea  in  view  that  Guillaume 
du  Bellay,  the  noted  French  diplomatist,  began 
a  correspondence,  on  behalf  of  the  French 
Court,  with  Philip  Melanchthon.  As  a  result 
of  this  negotiation,  Melanchthon  drew  up  a 
document — as  remarkable  for  its  charity  as  for 
its  great  concessions — which  he  thought  suit- 
able  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  a  general  agree- 
ment.  Du  Bellay  sent  it  to  King  Francis,  and 
it  seems  to  have  been  favorably  received  by 
that  monarch,  but  a  series  of  unlooked-for 
events  were  soon  to  destroy  all  the  hopes  of 

1  Lefcvre's  remorse  discussed  and   confirmed,   Baird,   p.   96,   and 
note. 


42  Essays  on  French  History. 

reconciliation  that  optimists  had  begun  to 
cherish. 

On  the  morning  of  the  18th  of  October, 
1534,  there  appeared  upon  the  walls  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  Paris,  placards  which,  under  the 
heading,  "  True  Articles  respecting  the  Hor- 
rible, Great,  and  Insupportable  Abuses  of  the 
Papal  Mass,"  most  boldly  and  violently  attacked 
the  papal  system.  These  placards  had  been 
prepared  by  some  of  the  more  ardent  and  less 
clear-headed  reformers,  1  and,  having  been 
printed  in  the  establishment  of  Pierre  Van 
Wingle2  at  Serrieres  near  Neufchatel,  had  been 
brought  secretly  to  Paris  by  one  Feret,  an 
apprentice  of  the  King's  apothecary.  The 
more  prudent  among  the  Lutherans  at  Paris 
opposed  the  publication  of  such  a  violent 
document,  but  their  wise  counsels  did  not  pre- 
vail over  the  rashness  of  their  brethren,  and 
on  October  18th  the  placard  appeared. 

"  I  invoke  heaven  and  earth  in  testimony  of 
the  truth,"  thus  it  began,  "against  that  proud 

1  Mr.  Baird  (p.  164,  note)  says  regarding  the  authorship  of  the 
placard:  "Merle  d'Aubigne,  on  the  authority  of  the  hostile  Flori- 
mond  de  Rsemond,  ascribes  it  to  Farel.  But  the  style  and  mode 
are  quite  in  contrast  with  those  of  Farel.  Author  of  Petit  Traicte  de 
P Eucharistie  (probably  Marcourt)  avows  authorship  of  the  placard." 

^Bulletin,  ix.,  pp.  27,  28  ;  after  Baird,  p.  164,  note. 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.       43 

and  pompous  papal  mass,  through  which  (if 
God  remedy  not  speedily  the  evil)  the  world 
will  be  wholly  desolated,  destroyed,  and  ruined. 
For  therein  is  our  Lord  so  outrageously  blas- 
phemed and  the  people  so  blinded  and  se- 
duced, that  it  ought  no  longer  to  be  suffered 
or  endured.  The  world  has  long  been,  and 
now  is,  flooded  with  wretched  sacrificing 
priests,  who  yet  proclaim  themselves  liars, 
inasmuch  as  they  chant  every  Sunday  in  their 
vespers,  that  Christ  is  a  priest  forever  after  the 
order  of  Melchisedec.  Wherefore  not  only 
every  man  of  sound  understanding,  but  they 
themselves,  in  spite  of  themselves,  must  admit 
that  the  Pope  and  all  his  brood  of  cardinals, 
bishops,  monks,  and  canting  mass-priests,  with 
all  who  consent  thereunto,  are  false  prophets, 
damnable  deceivers,  apostates,  wolves,  false 
shepherds,  idolaters,  liars,  and  execrable  blas- 
phemers, murderers  of  souls,  renouncers  of 
Jesus  Christ,  of  his  death  and  passion,  false 
witnesses,  traitors,  thieves,  and  robbers  of  the 
honor  of  God,  and  more  detestable  than 
devils."1 

'"This  singular  placard  is  given  in  exlenso  by  Gerdesius,  Hist. 
Evan.  Return.,  iv.  (Doc),  pp.  60-67  ;  Haag,  France  Pro/.,  x.  ;  Pieces 
Justif.,  pp.  1-6." — Baird,  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  p.  167,  note. 


44  Essays  071  French  History. 

The  effect  of  such  violent  and  unlimited 
denunciation  of  things  and  men  long-  con- 
sidered  holy  can  well  be  imagined,  and  the 
common  people  of  Paris,  who  were  wont  to 
regard  the  service  of  the  Mass  with  sincere 
devotion,  were  naturally  roused  to  fury.  But 
the  audacity  of  the  rash  reformers  reached  its 
culmination  when  they  fastened  a  copy  of  this 
inflammatory  placard  upon  the  very  door  of 
the  royal  bedchamber  in  the  palace  of  Amboise. 
Francis,  not  unnaturally,  regarded  this  act  as 
a  personal  insult,  and  came  at  once  to  Paris  to 
direct  in  person  a  search  for  the  offenders. 
On  the  13th  of  January,  1535,  he  was  induced, 
through  the  influence  of  the  Sorbonne,1  to  send 
to  Parliament  an  edict,  "absolutely  prohibit- 
ing, on  pain  of  the  halter,  any  exercise  of  the 
Art  of  Printing  in  France," — a  strange  edict 
for  a  prince  who  was  ambitious  to  figure  as  a 
"  modern  Maecenas,"  and  one  which,  six  weeks 
later,  he  had  sense  enough  to  recall. 

And  now  there  was  to  be  an  end  of  clemency 
toward  the  reformed  faith.  It  was  time  to 
prove  to   France  and  papal  Europe  that  the 


1  Didot,  Essai  sur  la  Typographie \  xxvi.,  760  (after  Baird,  p.  169, 
note). 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  Fra?icc,       45 

House  of  Valois  would  no  longer  tolerate 
the  "  new  doctrines  "  which  had  dared  thus  to 
insult  the  monarch  in  his  palace,  and  Francis, 
in  his  anger,  refused  to  listen  to  Margaret's 
remonstrances1  and  ordered  a  diligent  search 
for  the  authors  and  publishers  of  the  placards 
and  their  arrest,  trial,  and  execution  when 
found, — orders  that  the  Paris  Parliament  were 
not  slow  to  carry  out.  Under  the  control  of 
the  profligate  Morin,  Lieutenant-cri7ninel,  and 
his  informers  (les  Guainiers;  they  were  called), 
who,  induced  by  hope  of  reward  or  fear  of 
punishment,  gave  information  regarding  the 
names  and  dwelling-places  of  suspected  Luther- 
ans, the  work  went  rapidly  on.  All  reputed 
heretics  were  arrested  and,  as  speedily  as  pos- 
sible, sent  before  a  tribunal,  where  the  inno- 
cent were  often  made  to  suffer  with  the  guilty 
and  where  the  verdict  was  more  frequently 
"death"  than  "pardon."  Barthelemi  Milon, 
in  whose  possession  one  of  the  damning 
placards   had   been   found,   was   given  to  the 

1  "  The  Queen  of  Navarre  attempted  to  moderate  his  anger  by 
suggesting  that  it  was  not  unlikely  that  the  placard,  far  from  being 
composed  by  the  '  Lutherans,'  was  the  cunning  device  of  their  ene- 
mies, who  thus  sought  their  ruin." — Baird,  p.  168. 

2  "  /.  e.,  gainier,  sheath  or  scabbard-maker.  Hist.  Ecde'siastiqiie, 
i.,  p.  10  ;   Journal  d'un  Bourgeois,  p.  444." — Baird,  p.  171,  note. 


46  Essays  on  French  History. 

flames,  and  Jean  du  Bourg,  who  had  posted 
one,  having  made  his  amende  hoiiorable  with 
lighted  taper  before  the  church  of  Notre 
Dame,  had  his  right  hand  cut  off,  at  the 
Fontaine  des  Innocents,  for  his  "  high  treason 
against  God  and  King." 

But  a  more  imposing  amende  honorable  than 
that  of  poor  Jean  du  Bourg  was  deemed  neces- 
sary to  efface  the  enormity  of  so  great  a  crime. 
Therefore,  Thursday,  the  21st  of  January, 
1 535,  was  fixed  as  the  day  when  the  King,  the 
Court,  and  the  papal  clergy  should  carry  the 
holy  relics  of  the  Romish  Church,  and  above  all 
the  sacred  Eucharist,  in  solemn  procession,  to 
the  doors  of  Notre  Dame.  On  that  day  the 
good  citizens  of  Paris  were  astir  at  an  early 
hour  ;  the  streets  along  the  line  of  march  had 
all  been  newly  swept ;  the  windows  in  the 
houses  of  the  nobles  and  the  wealthy  bourgeois 
were  gay  with  many-colored  tapestries  ;  over 
all  doors  the  waxen  tapers  burned  ;  and  the 
men,  who  with  their  halberds  lined  the  thor- 
oughfare, kept  in  order  the  crowd  of  citizens 
in  holiday  attire. 

Slowly  through  the    Rue  Saint  Denis   and 
Rue    Saint-Honore  and  across  the  Bridge  of 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.        47 

Notre  Dame  came  the  splendid  procession.1 
First  marched  the  men-at-arms  and  then  Queen 
Eleonore,  surrounded  by  her  maids  of  honor, 
whose  crimson  satin  dresses  formed  a  brilliant 
contrast  to  her  sombre  velvet  robes.  After  them 
the  monastic  orders  with  their  burning  tapers, 
— the  Franciscans,  Augustinians,  Dominicans, 
and  Carmelites, — the  clergy  of  the  parish 
churches,  the  chapter  of  the  cathedral,  the  pro- 
fessors and  scholars  of  the  Paris  University, 
the  Swiss  guards  with  their  halberds,  the  musi- 
cians, trumpeters,  and  hautboys  ;  then  followed 
the  priests  of  "  Sainte  Chapelle,"  bearing  in 
their  costly  reliquaries  the  holy  relics  of  the 
Romish  Church, — the  crown  of  thorns,  the  holy 
lance,  the  purple  robe,  the  great  crown  of  St. 
Louis, — and  then  the  cardinals,  Givri,Tournon, 
Le  Veneur,  and  Chatillon,  in  their  robes  of 
office.  Under  a  splendid  velvet  canopy,  the 
supports  of  which  were  held  by  the  Dauphin 
and  the  Dues  d'Orleans,  d'Angouleme,  and 
Bourbon  Vendome,  walked  Jean  du  Bellay, 
Bishop  of  Paris,  carrying  that  object  of  univer- 
sal adoration,  the  great  silver  cross  containing 
the  consecrated  wafer  of  the  Eucharist.      King 


1  Description  of   the  great    expiatory  procession    condensed    from 
Baird,  pp.  173-176,  vol.  i. 


48  Essays  on  French  History. 

Francis  surrounded  by  his  officers  closed  the 
procession,  and  as  this  prince,  having  handed 
his  taper  to  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  knelt 
down  in  his  black  velvet  robes  at  the  various 
stations  erected  along  the  route  and  "  wor- 
shipped with  joined  hands  "  while  the  grand 
anthem  in  honor  of  the  sacrament  was  being 
sung,  "  there  was  no  one  among  the  people," 
so  say  the  registers  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  "be 
he  small  or  great,  that  did  not  shed  warm  tears 
and  pray  God  in  behalf  of  the  King,  whom  he 
beheld  performing  so  devout  an  act  and  worthy 
of  long  remembrance." '  So  they  went,  in 
splendid  procession,  to  the  church  of  Notre 
Dame,  and,  after  a  brilliant  mass  in  the  famous 
old  cathedral,  there  was  a  great  dinner  at  the 
episcopal  palace  where  Francis,  in  a  speech  to 
the  assembled  nobles,  cardinals,  ambassadors, 
and  judges  of  the  Parliament,  declared  his  inten- 
tion of  no  longer  tolerating  the  reformed  faith. 
"  The  errors,  which  have  multiplied,  and  are 
even  now  multiplying,  are  but  of  our  own  days," 
he  said.  "  Our  fathers  have  shown  us  how  to 
live  in  accordance  with  the  word  of  God  and  of 
our  Mother,  Holy  Church.     In  that  Church  I 

1  Registres  de  V  Hotel  de  Ville,  Felibien,  Pieces  Justif.,  v. ,  315  (after 
Baird,  p.  176,  note). 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.        49 

am  resolved  to  live  and  die,  and  I  am  deter- 
mined to  prove  that  I  am  entitled  to  be  called 
Very  Christian.  I  notify  you  that  it  is  my  will 
that  these  errors  be  driven  from  my  kingdom. 
X  or  shall  I  excuse  any  from  the  task.  Were 
one  of  my  arms  infected  with  this  poison,  I 
should  cut  it  off  !  Were  my  own  children  con- 
taminated, I  should  immolate  them!"1  He 
made  good  his  word,  and  to  such  an  extent 
were  the  Lutherans  punished  during  the  next 
few  months,2  by  execution,  by  torture,  by  the  es- 
trapade  3  (where  the  condemned  were  alter- 
nately raised  and  lowered  over  a  blazing  fire), 
by  all  manner  of  torture-producing  devices, 
that  even  the  Roman  Pontiff,  Paul  III.,  if  we 
may  believe  the  evidence  of  a  contemporary, i 
wrote  to  Francis  requesting  him  to  moderate 
his  severity  and  declaring  that  he  had  indeed 

1  "  En  sorte  que  si  un  des  bras  de  mon  corps  estoit  infecte  de  cette 
farine,  je  le  voudrois  coupper  ;  et  si  mes  enfans  en  estoient  entachez, 
je  les  voudrois  immoler."  The  contemporary  Cronique  dn  Roy  Fran- 
coys  ler,  giving  the  fullest  version  of  the  speech  (pp.  121-126),  attrib- 
uted to  the  King  about  the  same  expressions. — Baird,  p.  176. 

-  January-June,  1535. 

3  "  Une  espece  d'estrapade  ou  Ton  attachoit  les  criminels,  que  les 
bourreaux,  par  le  moyen  d'une  corde,  guindoient  en  haut,  et  les  lais- 
soient  ensuite  tomber  dans  le  feu  a  diverses  reprises,  pour  faire  durer 
leur  supplice  plus  long  terns." — Felibien  (after  Baird,  p.  17-  . 

4  Jt  urnal  J'  un  Bourgeois  de  Paris.  45S,  459  (after  Baird,  p.  1S0, 
note). 


5<D  Essays  on  French  History. 

made  good  his  claim  to  the  titles  of  the  Eldest 
Son  of  the  Church  and  Le  Rot  Tres  Chretien. 

And  now  the  French  reformers,  threatened 
with  the  gallows  or  the  stake  or  driven  into 
banishment,  could  no  longer  look  to  Paris  and 
the  Court  for  encouragement,  but  were  con- 
strained to  turn  their  eyes  toward  the  Alps, 
and,  from  this  period,  the  centre  of  the  reform- 
atory activity  is  to  be  found,  not  in  the  great 
capital  of  France,  but  with  Calvin  at  Geneva. 

Many  were  the  persecutions  which  the 
French  Huguenots  were  still  to  undergo — 
from  Henry  II.,  from  Francis  II.,  and,  worst 
of  all,  from  Charles  IX.  and  his  Medi- 
cean  mother,  when,  at  their  command,  the 
tocsin  of  Saint  Germain  l'Auxerrois  sounded 
the  signal  for  the  St.  Bartholomew — before 
they  received,  in  1598,  their  famous  Edict  of 
Nantes,  which  partially  protected  them  until 
the  day  when  the  Grand  Monarch  and  the 
Maintenon  drove  them  forth, l  to  carry  their 
wealth,  their  industry,  and  their  God-fearing 
devotion  into  other  lands  and  thus  inflicted 
upon  the  prosperity  of  France  the  most  terri- 
ble blow  it  had  ever  received.2 

1  Louis  XIV.  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  October  iS,  16S5. 
5  One  year  after  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  Marshal 
Vauban  wrote  :  "  France  has  lost  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants, 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.        5  1 

Can  it  be  said  that  if  Luther  and  Zwinodi 
had  never  appeared  there  would  still  have  been 
a  reforming  movement  in  France  ?  It  is  pos- 
sible ;  but,  to  go  into  the  realm  of  mere  specu- 
lation, it  is  probable  that  the  extent  and  force 
of  that  movement  would  have  been  very  lim- 
ited. The  ideas  of  the  Reformation  "  were 
not,  in  France,  a  foreign  importation  " ' ;  they 
sprang  up  on  French  soil,  but  the  men  to  whom 
it  was  given  to  spread  the  truth  abroad  differed 
much  from  the  sturdy  heroes  who,  in  Ger- 
many, carried  on  the  cause  to  victory.  Bricon- 
net,  who  might  have  done  so  much,  did  so 
little  ;  Farel — whose  work  in  Switzerland  it 
has  not  come  within  the  limits  of  this  paper  to 
study — approached  Luther  more  nearly  than 
any  other  of  the  French  reformers,  but,  though 
he  possessed  much  of  Luther  s  boldness,  he 
lacked  much  of  his  wisdom,  his  judgment,  and 
his  genius  ;  Lefevre,  to  whom  the  light  came 
so  early,  was  not  the  man  to  bear  the  brunt  of 
battle. 

"  Some  place  Lefevre  among  the  Protest- 
ants," says  Henri  Graf,  "  while  others  seek  to 

sixty  millions  of  coined  money,  nine  thousand  sailors,  twelve  thou- 
sand soldiers,  six  hundred  officers,  and  her  most  flourishing  manu- 
factures." 

1  D'Aubigne,  p.  347. 


52  Essays  on  French  History. 

cleanse  him  from  that  stain  of  heresy  and 
prove  that  he  was  to  the  end  a  good  Catholic. 
It  seems  that  this  question  cannot  remain 
doubtful  when  we  read  his  Commentary  upon 
the  New  Testament  and  the  epistle  which  pre- 
cedes his  translation  of  the  Gospels.  He 
recognized  no  other  source  of  true  Christianity 
than  the  Bible,  and  he  desired  to  free  religion 
from  all  human  traditions.  He  hoped  for  sal- 
vation only  from  the  grace  of  God  through 
Jesus  Christ,  and  he  attached  no  merit  to  mere 
works  and  the  acts  commanded  by  the  Church. 
If  he  did  not  declare  himself  a  member  of  the 
Protestant  Church,  it  was  because  there  was 
then  no  Protestant  Church  in  France,  and  he 
was  not  the  man  designed  by  Providence  to 
found  it.  His  character  was  not  sufficiently 
enterprising,  nor  his  spirit  sufficiently  bold,  to 
enable  him  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
movement,  and,  at  the  period  when  it  started, 
he  was  much  too  old  to  be  able  to  engage  in  a 
conflict  against  a  Church  which  had  such  terri- 
ble means  of  defence."1 

The  soil,  in  France,  was  well  prepared  ;  the 
new  ideas  were  expanding  in  men's  minds,  but 
there  was  needed  a  man  of  genius,  a  "  gigantic 

'Graf,  Essai,  etc.,  pp.  126,  127. 


Rise  of  the  Reformation  in  France.        53 

personality,"  to  give  the  vital  impetus.  He 
came  ;  and,  as  von  Polenz  has  expressed  it, 
"  The  trumpet-blast  which  Luther,  in  the  year 
151  7,  sounded,  in  Germany,  awakened  all  spir- 
its in  France."  1 

■Von  Polenz,  Geschichte  des  franzosischen  Calvinismus ,  p.  167. 


THE  CLUB  OF  THE  JACOBINS. 


55 


AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED. 


F.  A.  Aulard,  La  Soci/te'  des  Jacobins.  Collection  de  Documents 
Relatifs  a  I ' Histoire  de  Paris  Pendant  la  Revolution  Francaise. 
Publiee  sous  le  patronage  du  Conseil  Municipal,  Paris,  1889-1891. 

Biographic  Gen/rale,  Paris,  1857;  articles:  Bailly,  Barere,  Bil- 
laud-Varenne,  David,  Collot  d'Herbois,  Danton,  Robespierre,  Rabaut 
Saint-Etienne,  Real,  Mirabeau,  Barnave,  Cloots,  etc. 

Bourrienne,  Life  of  A^apoleon  Bonaparte. 

Buchez  and  Roux,  Histoire  Parlementaire  de  la  Revolution 
Francaise. 

Carlyle,    The  French  Revolution. 

Dispatches  of  Earl  Gower  (1 790-1792).  Edited  by  Oscar 
Browning. 

J.  Gros,  Le  Comit/ de  Sahit  Public.     Paris,  1S93. 

D'Hericault,  La  Revolution  de  Therniidor.     Paris,  1878. 

Me'moires  :  de  lAbbe  Gregoire  ;  de  Madame  Campan  ;  de  Madame 
de  Remusat ;  de  Chancelier  Pasquier  ;  de  la  Duchesse  de  Tourzel. 

Le  Moniteur  Universel.  Re'impression  de  I'Ancien  Moniteur  avec 
des  Notes  Explicatives  par  HI.  Leonard  Gallois.     Paris,  1840. 

Montgaillard,   Histoire  de  France.      Paris,  1S28. 

Mortimer-Ternaux,  Histoire  de  la  Terreur,  d'apres  des  Documents 
Authentiques  ct  Lnedits.     Paris,  1 870. 

Prudhomme,  Revolutions  de  Paris.     Paris,  1789-1793. 

A.  Schmidt,  Tableaux  de  la  Revolution  Francaise. 

Albert  Sorel,  L 'Europe  et  la  Revolution  Francaise.     Paris,  1893. 

H.  Morse  Stephens,  History  of  the  French  Revolution. 

Taine,  Les  Origines  de  la  France  Contemporaine.      La  Rivolution. 


56 


THE  CLUB  OF  THE  JACOBINS. 

WHEN,  on  the  5th  of  May,  17S9,  the 
States-General  of  France  was  solemnly 
opened  at  Versailles,  there  were  some  among 
the  more  far-sighted  in  that  great  assembly 
who  had  a  presentiment  that,  in  spite  of  the 
pomp  with  which  the  King  and  Court  were 
surrounded,  the  old  order  of  things  was  passing 
away.1  A  sense  of  change  was  in  the  air.  This 
day,  so  long  and  ardently  expected,  seemed  to 
many  the  consummation  of  their  wishes,  to 
some,  the  beo-inningf  of  unknown  dangers.  The 
common  people  were  filled  with  the  hope  that 
now  at  last  there  was  to  be  some  amelioration 
of  their  hard  lot, — that  now  at  last  the  good 
time  was  coming  when,  as  King  Henry  IV.  had 
said,  "  every  peasant  should  have  his  fowl  in 
the  pot  "  ;  the  patriots  were  filled  with  the  idea 
of  regenerating  France,  of  seeing  the  old  abuses 

1  Memoirs  of Chancellor  Pasquicr,  i.,  p.  44. 


5S  Essays  on  French  History. 

swept  away  while  they  themselves  assisted  in 
the  work  amid  popular  applause  ;  the  disaffected 
were  secretly  cherishing-  hopes  and  plans  of 
self-aggrandizement ;  the  nobility  were  stoutly 
resolved  to  maintain  their  prerogatives ;  royalty 
was  uncertain  what  course  to  pursue,  and  was 
full  of  misgiving  not  unmingled  with  alarm.1 

The  early  days  of  May,  1789,  which  thus 
saw  the  opening  of  this  memorable  assembly — 
the  first  States-General  since  the  time  of  Riche- 
lieu,— saw  also  the  formation  of  that  famous 
organization,  destined  ere  long  to  rise  above 
the  wrecks  of  the  Old  Regime  and  become,  for 
a  time,  the  chief  power  in  France — the  Jacobin 
Club.  We  find  the  origin  of  this  famous  so- 
ciety, the  Paris  Club  of  the  Jacobins,  in  the 
Breton  Club  of  Versailles. 

The  Deputies  to  the  States-General  from 
Bretagne,  few  of  whom  had  ever  been  to  Paris 
or  Versailles  before,  for  travelling  at  that 
time  was  not  the  simple  matter  it  is  to-day, 
felt  the  need  of  standing  and  acting-  together. 
They  were  going  into  the  midst  of  a  great  as- 
sembly collected  from  all  parts  of  France ;  into 
the  presence  of  their  King  whom  they  had  prob- 
ably never  seen,  and  of  whom  they  stood  in 

1  Madame  Campan,  Mdmoires  de  Marie  Antoinette,  p.  21S. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  59 

considerable  awe,  and  they  saw  that,  if  they 
were  to  accomplish  anything  in  behalf  of  the 
people  by  whom  they  had  been  elected,  they 
must  have  union  among  themselves. 

They  held  several  meetings  therefore  before 
setting  out,  and  decided  that,  upon  arriving  at 
Versailles,  they  would  secure  a  suitable  place 
where  they  could  meet  regularly  and  discuss 
their  plans.  Nicholas  Amaury,  the  lemonade- 
seller  of  Versailles,  a  man  of  property  and  of 
considerable  influence,  was  well  known  for  his 
liberal  opinions,  and  his  cafe,  called  the  Cafe 
Amaury,  was  generally  recommended  to  the 
deputies  who  arrived  from  different  parts  of  the 
kingdom.  Located  on  the  Rue  de  la  Pompe, 
No.  44,  at  the  corner  of  the  Avenue  of  Saint 
Cloud,  the  Cafe  Amaury  had  the  great  advan- 
tage, in  addition  to  the  fact  that  it  was  one  of 
the  best  in  Versailles  at  that  period,  of  being 
but  a  short  distance  from  the  great  hall  of  the 
Hotel  de  Menus  where  the  States-General  sat. 

The  Cafe  Amaury  seemed  then  to  the  Depu- 
ties from  Bretagne  a  most  suitable  place  in 
which  to  hold  their  meetings,  and  they  accord- 
ingly established  themselves  there,  taking  the 
name  of  the  Breton  Club.  They  numbered  at 
first   but  seventy-four   persons  in  all,  twenty- 


60  Essays  on  French  History. 

eight  of  whom  were  members  of  the  Clergy 
and  forty-six  of  whom  were  members  of  the 
Third  Estate.  The  nobility  were  not  repre- 
sented, for  the  nobles  of  Bretagne  had  refused 
to  send  delegates  to  the  States-General.  Al- 
most immediately,  however,  the  Bretons  re- 
ceived most  notable  additions,  for  they 
admitted  to  their  membership  the  Due  d' 
Aiguillon,  Mirabeau,  Sieyes,  Barnave,  Petion, 
Volney,  the  i\bbe  Gregoire,  Charles  and 
Alexander  Lameth,  Robespierre,  La  Revelliere- 
Lepeaux,  and  the  Marquis  de  Lacoste. 

By  the  23d  of  June — the  day  of  the  famous 
seance  royale — their  number  had  increased  to 
one  hundred  and  fifty.  In  the  Cafe  Amaury, 
Mirabeau  began  to  develop  that  plan  of  revolu- 
tion which  he  was  later  to  carry  out.  He 
worked  with  caution,  however,  and,  according 
to  Montjoie,1  the  only  ones  at  first  initiated  into 
his  secret  were  La  Chapelier,  Sieyes,  Barnave, 
Petion,  and  Volney. 

The  Breton  Club2  soon  became  a  centre,  for 
the  more  radical  spirits,  and  in  its  little  gather- 

1  Montjoie,  Histoire  de  la  Revolution  de  France,  p.  121  (after 
Aulard). 

'2  All  statements  regarding  the  meeting-place  of  the  Breton  Club  and 
the  number  of  its  members  are  upon  the  authority  of  M.  Aulard,  tome 
i.,  pp.  1-40. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  6  r 

ings  revolutionary  ideas  advanced  rapidly.  By 
the  middle  of  July  they  had  already  resolved 
on  desperate  measures.  M.  Corroller  {Pro- 
cure ur  du  Roi  at  Hennebout),  breakfasting 
with  MM.  Malouet  and  Dufraisse,  informed 
them  that  "  it  had  been  resolved  in  the  Breton 
Club,  if  the  Court  did  not  dismiss  Necker, 
that,  in  order  to  stir  up  the  people,  the  Palais- 
Bourbon  should  be  set  on  fire."  Necker,  how- 
ever, was  dismissed  and  the  insurrection  of  the 
14th  of  July  and  the  fall  of  the  Bastile  followed, 
much  to  the  joy  of  the  Breton  Club,  who,  to 
quote  Montjoie,  "  rejoiced  to  see  that  the  dis- 
missal of  M.  Necker  had  at  last  begun  the 
Revolution."  They  then  decided  to  place  the 
Due  d'Orleans  at  the  head  of  affairs  that,  as 
Mirabeau  said,  "  the  ship  of  state  might  ad- 
vance more  rapidly  towards  liberty." 

When,  as  the  result  of  the  insurrection  of 
the  6th  of  October,  the  royal  family  were 
carried  off  to  Paris  by  the  women  of  the  capi- 
tal, the  National  Assembly  declared  themselves 
inseparable  from  the  person  of  the  King  and 
followed  him,  and  as  the  Breton  Club  was 
composed  entirely  of  members  of  the  National 
Assembly,  there  was  consequently  no  longer 
any  Breton  Club  at  Versailles. 


62  Essays  on  French  History. 

Where  the  Bretons  met,  if  they  met  at  all, 
from  the  early  days  of  October  when  they 
arrived  in  Paris  until  near  the  close  of  the  year 
when  they  established  themselves  in  the  Jacobin 
Convent,  Rue  Saint-Honore,  is  a  matter  of 
doubt.  Montjoie  says  that  they  met,  for  a 
time,  at  No.  7,  Place  des  Victoires,  but  no 
other  authority  confirms  his  statement. 
Alexander  de  Lameth,  in  his  L! Histoire  de 
r Assemblee  Constituante,  tells  us,  and  it  seems 
likely  enough,  that  upon  their  first  arrival  the 
majority  of  the  deputies,  finding  themselves  in 
Paris  for  the  first  time,  were  somewhat  lost,  so 
to  speak,  in  that  great  city,  and  busied  them- 
selves in  getting  lodgings  as  near  as  they  could 
to  the  National  Assembly,  which  had  taken  as 
its  place  of  meeting  the  riding-school  of  the 
Tuileries  which  then  faced  the  Tuileries'  garden 
on  the  side  of  the  present  Rue  de  Rivoli. 
Once  settled  in  Paris  the  members  of  the 
Breton  Club  began  to  look  about  for  a  suitable 
hall  in  which  to  continue  their  meetings,  and 
finally,  near  the  close  of  1789,  they  secured  the 
Convent  of  the  Jacobin  Friars  on  the  Rue 
Saint-Honore,  and  there  installed  themselves 
under  the  name  of  "  Society  of  the  Friends  of 
the  Constitution   Meeting  at  the  Jacobins  m 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  63 

Paris."  Their  enemies  nicknamed  them  "  The 
Jacobins,"  and  as  such  they  are  known  to 
history. 

The  Society  occupied  successively,  in  the 
interior  of  the  Jacobin  Convent,  three  different 
locations.  For  the  first  few  weeks  of  its  exist- 
ence, a  small  apartment  on  the  ground-floor 
(rented  at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  francs  a 
year),  then  from  the  early  days  of  1  790  to  the 
29th  of  May,  1  79 1,  the  library  of  the  Convent, 
and,  finally,  from  the  29th  of  May,  1 79 1,  to 
the  end  of  its  existence  (November  11,  1794"), 
the  chapel.  The  small  apartment  on  the 
ground-floor  was  occupied  so  short  a  time, 
and  only  during  organization,  that  the  regular 
meetings  of  the  Club  may  be  said  to  com- 
mence with  their  occupation  of  the  library. 
This  library  of  the  Jacobins,  as  pictures  of  the 
time  still  show  it,  was  a  long  apartment  with 
heavy  arched  ceiling  and  windows.  Over  the 
principal  entrance-door  a  large  painting,  at- 
tributed to  Nicholas  de  Lestain,  represented 
Saint  Thomas  Aquinas  and  the  different  mon- 
astic orders.  In  the  centre  of  the  hall,  to  the 
right  of  the  door  of  entrance,  were  placed  the 
table  and  arm-chair  of  the  president  of  the 
Club,   raised   two  steps  above   the  floor,  and 


64  Essays  on  French  History, 

below  them  the  table  for  the  secretaries,  while 
directly  opposite,  facing  the  president's  chair, 
was  the  tribune  from  which  the  members  ad- 
dressed the  Society.  Eight  rows  of  benches 
extended  the  length  of  the  apartment,  four  on 
each  side,  and  upon  these  the  members  sat. 

The  objects  and  purposes  for  which  the 
Society  met  are  clearly  set  forth  in  the  regula- 
tions for  their  internal  organization,  which, 
having  been  drawn  up  by  Barnave,  were 
adopted  by  the  Society  on  the  8th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1790.1  These  objects  were  primarily 
three  in  number :  1st,  to  discuss  in  advance  all 
questions  that  were  to  be  decided  in  the  Na- 
tional Assembly  ;  2d,  to  labor  for  the  estab- 
lishment and  support  of  the  Constitution  ;  3d, 
to  correspond  with  the  other  societies  of  the 
same  class  {societes  affiliees)  that  were  to  be 
formed  in  the  kingdom.  The  admission  of 
persons  desiring  to  join  the  Society  was  voted 
upon  orally  and  not  by  ballot.  It  was  neces- 
sary that  five  members  of  the  Club  should 
propose  their  names,  unless  they  chanced  to 
be  members  of  the  National  Assembly,  in 
which  case  two  members  were  sufficient.  Their 
names  were  then  posted  during  two  meetings, 

1  F.  A.  Aulard,  La  Societe  des  yacobins  (organisation  intmeure). 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  65 

upon  a  card  prepared  for  that  purpose,  to- 
gether with  the  names  of  the  members  who 
proposed  them  and  those  who  approved  them. 
During  this  time  any  one  could  make  objec- 
tions to  them,  and  finally  their  admission  was 
decided  by  an  oral  vote.  Persons  living  out 
of  Paris  were  admitted  as  non-resident  mem- 
bers, and  other  clubs  of  the  same  nature  that 
were  formed  throughout  France  were,  upon 
the  demand  of  some  of  their  members,  ad- 
mitted as  affiliated  societies,  provided  that  the 
persons  who  made  the  proposition  guaranteed 
that  their  spirit  was  in  harmony  with  that  of 
the  Mother  Society,  and  with  these  affiliated 
societies  the  Jacobins  entered  at  once  into 
active  correspondence. 

The  officers  of  the  Society  consisted  of  a 
president,  four  secretaries,  and  a  treasurer. 
There  was  no  vice-president,  and  in  the  ab- 
sence of  the  president  his  place  was  filled  by 
the  last  of  his  predecessors  who  happened  to 
be  present.  The  president  and  two  of  the 
secretaries  were  elected  every  month  by  ballot, 
and  the  treasurer  could  be  displaced  at  will. 
The  Club  met  regularly  at  six  o'clock  in  the 
evening  on  all  days  not  entirely  occupied  by 
the  National  Assembly,  with  the  exception  of 


66  Essays  on  French  History. 

Sundays  and  fete-days.  In  their  order  of  de- 
bate they  followed  the  rules  governing  the 
National  Assembly.  The  initiation  fee  was 
fixed  at  twelve  livres  and  the  annual  dues  at 
twenty-four  livres,  payable  on  the  first  days  of 
January,  April,  July,  and  October. 

The  meetings  of  the  Society,  while  they 
continued  in  the  library,  were  not  open  to  the 
public,  but  when  they  moved  into  the  chapel 
in  May,  1 791,  the  tribune  of  the  choir  was 
reserved  for  ladies,  and  in  October  of  the 
same  year  the  general  public  were  admitted. 
On  the  21st  of  December,  1790,  the  Jacobins 
numbered  1102  members,  and  a  year  later 
their  membership  had  increased  to  121 1. 

Among  their  supporters  were  found  lawyers, 
philosophers,  members  of  the  French  Acad- 
emy, men  of  the  robe,  ci-devant  nobles,  bour- 
geois, and  sansculottes.  There  was  the  Due 
d'Aieuillon,  of  the  old  Duplessis-Richelieu 
family,  who,  though  his  father  had  been  Minis- 
ter of  Foreign  Affairs  under  Louis  XV.,  em- 
braced eagerly  the  cause  of  the  Revolution  ; 
likewise  Bailly,  the  mathematician  and  mem- 
ber of  the  French  Academy,  he  who,  as  Mayor 
of  Paris,  addressed  King  Louis  at  the  barriers, 
on  that  July  morning,  1789,  when  his  Majesty 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  67 

was  brought  to  Paris  to  grace  the  triumph  of 
the  Bastile  conquerors, — "  Sire,  Henry  IV. 
had  conquered  his  people,  and  here  it  is  the 
people  who  have  reconquered  their  King ! " ;  and 
Barere,  the  young  lawyer  of  Tarbes,  who  was 
to  be  President  of  the  Convention  and  Mem- 
ber of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  and,  in 
September,  1793,  to  request  of  the  Conven- 
tion that  "  La  Terreur  be  the  order  of  the 
day  "  :  ;  and  Barnave,  the  enthusiastic  young 
avocat  from  Grenoble,  who  loved  the  Revolu- 
tion but  abhorred  its  crimes  ;  and  Beauhar- 
nais,  the  Viscount  from  Martinique,  who  died 
upon  the  scaffold,  and  whose  widow  was  to 
join  her  lot  to  the  fortunes  of  the  young  Gen- 
eral Bonaparte  and  become  world-famous  as 
the  Empress  Josephine  ;  and  Billaud-Varenne, 
the  avocat  from  Rochelle,  one  of  the  most  vio- 
lent and  blood-thirsty  of  all  the  revolutionary 
leaders  ;  and  Brune,  the  journalist,  the  future 
conqueror  of  Belgium  and  Marshal  of  the 
Empire  ;  and  Cloots,  who  styled  himself 
"  Anacharsis,"  and,  not  content  with  attacking 
kings,  attacked  God  himself,  calling  him  "  Ten- 

1  "  Placons  la  terreur  a  l'ordre  du  jour."  The  words  were  first  used 
by  a  deputation  from  the  Jacobin  Club.  Barere  quoted  them  and 
the  Convention  did  not  decree  them  (as  commonly  thought).  See 
Moniteur,  No.  250,  vol.  xvii.,  p.  526. 


68  Essays  on  French  History. 

nemi  personnel  "  ;  and  Collot  d'  Herbois,  the 
actor  of  the  Rue  du  Mail,  a  worthy  colleague 
of  Billaud-Varenne  ;  and  the  Abbe  Gregoire, 
who  wrote  his  Memoires,  and,  among  other 
works,  the  Histoire  des  Confcsseurs  des  Empe- 
reurs  et  des  Rois  ;  and  Charles  and  Alexander, 
the  brothers  Lameth,1  who  fought  bravely 
under  Rochambeau  in  America,  one  being 
wounded  at  Yorktown ;  and  Lavalette,  who 
fought  at  the  Tuileries  on  August  ioth,  who 
became  a  Count  of  the  Empire  and  had 
strange  adventures  during  the  "  Hundred 
Days  "  ;  and  Legendre,  the  Paris  butcher,  who 
headed  the  "  Necker-d'Orleans  bust  proces- 
sion "  on  the  13th  of  July,  1789,  and  led  the 
attack  on  the  Bastile  the  day  following  ;  and 
Mirabeau,  the  "  son  of  thunder,"  the  greatest 
orator  in  revolutionary  France  ;  and  Petion, 
the  Mayor  of  Paris  ;  and  Desmoulins,  the 
editor  of  the  Vieux  Cordelier,  and  friend  of 
Danton  ;  and  the  young  Due  de  Chartres — 
Louis  Philippe  d'Orleans — who,  after  innumer- 
able adventures,  was  one  day  to  become  King 

1  The  character  of  the  Jacobin  Club  changed  greatly  after  1791, 
and  men  like  the  Lameths,  Bailly,  Barnave,  and  all  the  more 
moderate  members  entirely  disapproved  the  violent  actions  of  the 
Mountain  party.  It  is  too  often  supposed  that  the  Jacobin  Club  was 
composed  of  only  the  most  violent  republicans.     Such  was  not  the  case. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  69 

of  the  French  under  the  title  of  Louis  Philippe 
the  First ;  and  Rabaut  Saint-Etienne,  the  Con- 
stituant  of  Nimes,  who  wrote  an  Almanack. 
Historique  de  la  Revolution  Francaise  ;  and 
David,  the  great  painter,  who,  after  participat- 
ing in  all  the  crimes  of  Robespierre  and  Collot 
d'Herbois,  was  to  turn  imperialist,  and  portray 
upon  canvas,  in  his  "  Coronation  of  Jose- 
phine," the  triumphs  of  the  Age  Napoleon  ; 
and  Real  the  constant  orator  of  the  Jacobins, 
the  future  public  accuser  and  Count  of  the 
Empire,  who  was  to  play  a  part  in  the  Due 
d'Enghien  business  at  Vincennes  in  1804  ; 
and  Robespierre,  the  "  incorruptible "  Maxi- 
milien,  too  well  known  to  need  comment,  and 
his  brother,  Robespierre  the  younger,  who  died 
with  him  on  the  scaffold  ;  and  Tallien,  the  hero 
of  the  "  Ninth  Thermidor,"  who  lived  to  see 
himself  forgotten  ;  and  Talma,  the  great  actor 
of  the  Comedie  Francaise,  who  was  to  teach 
Napoleon  how  to  wear  his  robes  of  state  ;  and 
Carle  Vernet,  whose  paintings  adorn  the 
Louvre  and  Luxembourg  ;  and,  finally,  Phil- 
ippe-Joseph, Due  d'Orleans  (Egalite),  Prince 
of  the  Blood,  and  the  fourth  personage  in  the 
kingdom. 

Such    were    some    of   the    more    prominent 


jo  Essays  on  FrencJi  History. 

members  who  composed  the  Jacobin  Soci- 
ety, and  thus,  from  its  foundation,  with  its 
many  great  names  and  high  prestige,  the  Paris 
Club  enjoyed  an  exceptional  position,  and  one 
which  it  soon  strengthened  immensely  by  es- 
tablishing its  branch  societies  {societes  affiltecs) 
throughout  France.  By  the  summer  of  i  790, 
these  branch  societies  numbered  one  hundred 
and  fifty-two  ;  in  May,  1 791,  they  had  increased 
to  four  hundred  and  six  ;  and  in  the  spring  of 
1 794,  the  time  of  the  greatest  Jacobin  influence, 
their  number  was  somewhat  over  one  thou- 
sand.1 

This  completeness  of  party  organization — 
none  of  their  opponents  had  anything  that 
could  compare  to  it — is  a  most  noticeable 
feature  in  the  history  of  the  Jacobins.  By 
means  of  it  they  attained  to  supreme  power, 
and  it  is  all  the  more  noteworthy  as  being  the 
first  modern  example  of  what  organization  in 
politics  can  accomplish. 

At  the  beginning  of  1  791,  the  revolutionary 
movement,  begun  by  the  States-General  in 
1789,  was  losing  force,  for  the  Revolution 
seemed  to  have  accomplished  all  that  its  most 

1  There  are  many  statements  as  to  the  number  of  Jacobin  Clubs  in. 
the  Year  Two.  The  figures  given  above  are  on  the  authority  of  M. 
Aulard,  tome  i.,  pp.  Sc-89. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  71 

ardent  supporters  had  primarily  hoped  it  might 
attain.  The  Old  Regime,  with  its  despotism, 
privileged  noblesse,  feudal  laws,  and  antiquated 
system  of  taxation,  had  disappeared,  and  free- 
dom had  been  established  in  politics,  in  indus- 
try, and  in  trade.  The  men  of  law  and  order, 
the  patriots  of  1 789,  at  the  head  of  whom 
were  Lafayette,  Mirabeau,1  Barnave,1  and  the 
Lameths,1  saw  that  the  time  had  come  to  stop, 
and  men  in  general,  after  the  stormy  excite- 
ments of  the  past  two  years,  had  begun  to 
long  for  a  period  of  rest.  They  were  anxious 
to  be  busy  again  about  their  private  affairs,  for 
politics,  with  the  many  duties  and  burdens 
imposed  by  the  Constitution,  had  become 
laborious. 

But  there  was  a  dissatisfied  minority  to 
whom  the  Revolution  seemed  to  have  brought 
little.  They  had  fondly  imagined  that  by 
revolution  they  were  to  get  everything,  and 
not  having  attained  the  summit  of  their  desires, 
they  were  not  willing  that  any  one  should  talk 
of  the  Revolution  as  "  accomplished,"  as  some 
of  the  Assembly  leaders  were  beginning  to  do. 

Many  people  were  out  of  employment,  and 

1  Though  they  were  Jacobins  they  disapproved  of  the  violent 
course  taken  by  the  more  radical  members  of  their  party":  There 
were  Jacobins  and  Jacobins.     Not  all  were  extreme  revolutionists. 


j  2  Essays  on  French  History. 

in  Paris  the  difficulty  had  been  especially  in- 
creased by  the  number  of  those  who  flocked 
there  from  the  provinces.  In  nearly  all  trades 
that  minister  to  luxury  and  refinement  there 
was  stagnation,  and  carriage-builders,  wig- 
makers,  perfumers,  and  all  the  dealers  in  the 
thousand  and  one  costly  fabrics  which  then 
formed  so  large  a  part  of  the  trade  of  Paris, 
were  crying  out  loudly  at  the  general  depres- 
sion. 

The  improvement  in  trade,  stimulated  by 
the  issue  of  assignats,  had  been  only  temporary, 
and  the  common  people  who,  owing  to  the 
scarcity  of  grain,  were  again  experiencing  the 
pangs  of  hunger,  felt  that  they  were  still  a  long 
way  off  from  Henry  IV.'s  millennium  of  "  the 
chicken  in  the  pot,"  which  they  had  been  so 
sure  the  Revolution  was  to  bring. 

The  Constitutional  party,  pledged  to  support 
the  King  and  the  Constitution,  had  been  busy 
for  the  past  two  years  in  proclaiming  the  abso- 
lute equality  of  man  and  stripping  the  Crown 
of  its  prerogatives,  and  now  in  their  endeavor 
to  stop  and  to  insist  upon  the  maintenance  of 
the  monarchial  system,  they  showed  plainly 
that  it  was  not  their  intention  to  admit  the 
poorest  class  to  power. 


The  Club  of  tiie  Jacobins. 


/  o 


That  class,  consequently,  began  immediately 
to  echo  those  theories  of  absolute  equality 
which  for  the  past  two  years  had  been  so 
loudly  proclaimed.  Thus  amid  all  these  con- 
flicting passions  and  theories  it  was  left  for  the 
professional  politicians,  —  the  Jacobins,  —  to 
take  advantage  of  all  these  circumstances  and 
begin  the  second  revolutionary  movement, 
and  from  1 79 1  to  1794  the  Revolution  be- 
comes, as  M.  Taine  has  aptly  expressed  it, 
"  The  Jacobin  Conquest." 

To  meet  the  wishes  of  all  the  dissatisfied 
ones,  and,  by  removing  the  causes  of  their 
trouble,  make  of  them  fairly  contented  citizens, 
was  a  task  in  which  the  greatest  statesman 
might  well  have  failed.  And  the  greatest 
statesman  of  that  day — the  only  man  perhaps 
who  might,  by  his  genius  and  his  popularity, 
have  avoided  Scylla  and  escaped  Charybdis  in 
reconciling  the  Revolution  to  the  Crown,  and 
so  made  good  his  promise  to  the  Queen  a  short 
time  previous  in  the  garden  of  Saint  Cloud, 
("  Madame,  the  Monarchy  is  saved  !  ")  ' — had 
lain  down  to  die. 

On  the  2d  of  April,  1791,  Mirabeau,  worn 
out  by  work   and   sickness,  breathed  his  last. 

1  Madame  Campan,  Mimoires  de  Marie  Antoinette,  p,  283. 


74  Essays  on  French  History. 

On  the  3d  of  April,  the  Jacobins  passed  the 
following  decree  : 

"  1  st — The  members  of  the  Society  shall  in 
a  body  accompany  the  funeral  procession. 
2d — The  Society  shall  wear  mourning  for 
eight  days.  3d — The  anniversary  of  the 
death  of  Mirabeau  shall  be  perpetually  a  day 
of  mourning  for  the  Friends  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. 4th — The  Society  shall  order  made  a 
marble  bust  of  Mirabeau  beneath  which  shall 
be  engraved  these  words,  which  he  addressed 
at  the  time  of  the  seance  royale  to  M.  de  Breze, 
who  came  to  order  the  members  of  the  Na- 
tional Assembly  to  separate,  '  Go  tell  those 
who  sent  you  that  we  are  here  by  the  will  of 
the  people  and  that  we  shall  not  go  hence 
except  by  the  power  of  the  bayonet ! '  5th — 
This  bust  shall  be  placed  perpetually  in  the 
meeting-hall  of  the  Society  of  the  Friends  of 
the  Constitution."  ! 

Mirabeau's  day  was  over  ;  the  morrow  was 
to  see  the  rise  of  a  new  apostle  of  liberty — 
Maximilien  Robespierre. 

The  elections  of  1791  furnish  a  significant 
example  of  the  growing  power  of  the  Jacobins. 

1  Aulard,  tome  ii.,  p.  288,  apres  le  Journal  des  Amis  de  la  Constitu- 
tion. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  75 

At  each  election  since  1  789  they  had  gradually 
crept  into  power,  but  now  they  entered  in 
large  numbers.  Petion  became  Mayor  of  Paris, 
Manuel,  procureur-syndic  with  Danton  as  his 
deputy,  and  Robespierre,  proctireur-du-roi. 

One  hundred  and  thirty-six  of  the  new 
deputies  to  the  National  Assembly  entered 
their  names  on  the  Jacobin  Club  register  within 
the  first  week  after  their  arrival,  thus  swelling 
the  number  of  deputies  among  its  members  to 
two  hundred  and  fifty.  The  Abbe  Gregoire, 
in  his  Ale  moires,  has  left  us  an  interesting  de- 
scription of  the  manner  in  which  the  Jacobins 
influenced  the  action  of  the  Assembly.  "  Our 
tactics,"  he  says,  "were  very  simple.  It  was 
understood  that  one  of  us  should  take  advan- 
tage of  the  first  favorable  opportunity  to  pro- 
pose some  measure  in  the  National  Assembly 
that  was  sure  to  be  applauded  by  a  small 
minority  and  cried  down  by  the  majority,  but 
that  made  no  difference.  The  proposer  de- 
manded, which  was  granted,  that  the  measure 
should  be  referred  to  a  committee  in  which  its 
opponents  hoped  to  see  it  buried.  Then  the 
Paris  Jacobins  took  hold  of  it.  A  circular  was 
issued,  after  which  an  article  on  the  measure 
was  printed   in  their  journal  and  discussed  in 


76  Essays  on  French  History. 

three  or  four  hundred  clubs  that  were  leagued 
together.  Three  weeks  after  this,  the  As- 
sembly was  flooded  with  petitions  from  every 
quarter  demanding-  a  decree,  of  which  the  first 
proposal  had  been  rejected  and  which  it  now 
passed  by  a  great  majority  because  a  discussion 
of  it  had  ripened  public  opinion." '  Such  was 
the  working  of  the  Jacobin  political  machine. 

The  death  of  Mirabeau  had  put  an  end  to 
the  hope  of  firmly  establishing  the  Monarchy 
in  its  Constitutional  form,  and,  though  the 
Queen  and  the  Court  party  were  not  sorry  to 
be  freed  from  one  whom  they  both  feared  and 
distrusted,  Louis  XVI.  seemed  to  have  real- 
ized the  greatness  of  the  statesman  he  had 
lost.  "  Do  not  rejoice  over  the  death  of 
Mirabeau,"  he  said  to  the  Queen,  "we  have 
suffered  a  greater  loss  than  you  imagine."2 
There  is  no  more  pitiable  figure  in  the  great 
drama  of  the  Revolution  than  King  Louis  XVI. 
himself.  He  was  a  thoroughly  good  and  hon- 
est man  ;  he  sincerely  desired  the  welfare  of 
his  people,  but  the  great  weakness  of  his  char- 
acter made  it  impossible  for  him  either  to 
enforce    measures    that    his  better  sense    told 

1  MJmoires  de  VAbhe  Gregoire,  tome  i.,  p.  387. 
"  Me'moircs  de  la  Duchesse  de  Tourzel,  edited  by  the  Due  des  Cars, 
Paris,  1883,  tome  i.,  p.  247. 


The  Club  of  tJie  Jacobins.  77 

him  were  wise  and  prudent,  or  to  refrain  from 
following  advice,  forced  upon  him,  which  he 
was  often  equally  sure  was  harmful  to  his  best 
interests.  In  important  affairs  of  state,  al- 
though amid  various  counsels  he  often  knew 
which  was  best,  he  never  had  the  resolution  to 
say,  "  I  prefer  the  opinion  of  such  a  one."  l 
Minus  his  blue  ribbon  and  his  star  of  the 
Order  of  the  Holy  Ghost  he  appeared,  as  he 
in  truth  was,  a  fat,  honest  bourgeois, — the 
good  father  of  a  family.  He  would  have 
made  a  capital  locksmith,  for  his  greatest 
delight  was  to  go  up  into  his  forge  at  the  top 
of  the  palace  of  Versailles,  take  off  his  coat, 
and  file  away  at  his  locks  with  the  sieur 
Gamain,  and  the  specimens  of  his  handiwork, 
which  the  curious  may  see  to-day  in  the  Musee 
des  Souveraines  at  Paris,  prove  that  he  was 
no  indifferent  workman.' 

Fate  played  him  a  sorry  trick  in  placing 
him  upon  a  throne  and  his  crown  which  he 
had  said  "hurt  him"  (Bile  me  ge?ie /)  when 
they  crowned  him  in  the  grand  old  cathedral 
at  Rheims,  he  was  destined  to  find  "  hurtful" 
in  every  sense. 

1  Mcmoires  de  Soulavie  (after  Madame  Campan). 
4  See  article,  "  Le  Roi  Artisan,"  par  M.  Henri  Bouchot,  in  I.'Ar!  et 
Lt  tires,  1S89. 


78  Essays  o?i  French  History. 

His  badly  planned  and  worse-executed  flight 
in  June,  1 79 1 ,  which  ended  in  his  arrest  at 
Varennes  and  ignominious  return  to  Paris,  de- 
stroyed almost  entirely  the  personal  respect 
which  he  had  hitherto  inspired  and,  by  causing 
him  to  be  generally  distrusted,  sealed  his  fate. 
This  event,  which  greatly  increased  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  moderate  party  who  desired  to 
keep  Louis  on  his  throne,  furnished  a  weapon 
to  the  Jacobins  which  they  were  not  slow  to 
use,  but  in  the  method  to  be  followed  the 
party  was  divided.  Danton  and  Desmoulins 
at  the  Cordelier  Club  loudly  demanded  a  re- 
public ;  Marat  wanted  a  dictator  who  should 
put  all  enemies  to  death,  while  the  adherents 
of  the  Due  d'Orleans  desired  the  King's  down- 
fall that  they  might  have  Philippe  Egalite  set 
up  in  his  place. 

The  Jacobin  Club  as  a  whole,  however,  were 
not  ready  for  such  extreme  measures.  At  the 
meeting  of  July  1,  1 79 1,  Billaud-Varenne  at- 
tempted to  speak  in  favor  of  a  republic. 
"To-day,"  said  he,  "when  the  throne  has 
been  almost  overturned  by  the  flight  of  the 
King,  I  am  still  more  surprised  that  means 
have  not  been  taken  to  demolish  it.  I  now 
propose  to  discuss  this  question,  Which  will 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  79 

suit  us  the  better — a  monarchy  or  a  republic  ?  "  ' 
Here,  interrupted  by  hisses  and  loud  shouts, 
he  was  not  allowed  to  continue,  for  the  Jacob- 
ins, though  they  demanded  Louis's  deposition, 
still  hesitated  to  approve  the  abolition  of  the 
throne. 

At  the  meeting  of  July  1  ith,  M.  Carra,  hav- 
ing discussed  the  inviolability  of  the  King, 
concluded  by  proposing  that  "  Louis  XVI.  be 
deposed  and  his  son  be  elected  to  the  throne 
and  that  a  council  of  regency  be  appointed,"  - 
and,  at  the  same  meeting,  M.  Chenaux  dis- 
cussed, at  great  length,  the  following  question, 
"  What  ousrht  the  legislators  to  do  in  the  cir- 
cumstances  in  which  they  find  themselves  ? " 
In  the  course  of  his  speech  he  said  :  "  What 
ought  we  to  do  ?  Is  it  necessary  to  change 
our  Constitution  and  pass  from  a  monarchy  to 
a  republic  ?  I  do  not  think  so.  Is  it  neces- 
sary to  punish  the  King  as  an  individual  and 
compel  him  to  undergo  the  burden  and  rigor 
of  a  trial  ?  I  do  not  adopt  that  opinion.  I 
desire  that  we  shall  not  waver  for  an  instant, 
that  we  shall  not  deviate  in  the  least  degree 
from  our  Constitution.      We  have  decreed  that 

1  Aulard,  tome  ii.,  p.  574. 
•  Ibid.,  tome  iii.,  p.  2. 


8o  Essays  on  French  History. 

the  person  of  the  King  was  inviolable.  I  de- 
sire to  give  that  decree  the  widest  interpreta- 
tion. I  am  not  ignorant  of  the  thousand  and 
one  reasons  that  present  themselves  to  explain 
and  comment  upon  it,  but  I  do  not  wish  to 
stop  there  ;  I  fear  that  we  make  assumptions, 
that  we  determine  too  much  by  circumstances. 
Without  doubt  Louis  XVI.  has  committed  an 
atrocious  crime,  but  he  was  Kino-  and  it  is 
very  rarely  that  virtue  goes  to  dwell  in  the 
palace  of  kings  in  order  to  punish  them  for 
not  having  known  her.  Let  the  National  As- 
sembly, by  the  same  power  by  which  it  has  for. 
merly  made  Louis  XVI.  the  first  of  men,  now 
cover  him  with  the  ignominy  due  the  weakest 
and  most  traitorous  and  declare  authentically 
his  incapacity  to  bear  the  honorable  sceptre  of 
the  first  king  of  liberty  ;  let  it  place  that  scep- 
tre in  the  hands  of  his  son,  the  hope  of  the 
French,  and  let  it  not  fear  contradiction.  .  .  . 
Give  to  Louis  XVI.  the  right  to  retire  under 
a  good  and  sure  guard  into  whatever  place  he 
may  wish  to  make  his  residence,  always 
within  the  limits  of  the  kingdom  ;  prohibit 
him  from  interfering  with  the  exercise  of  the 
executive  power,  and  order  that  an  action  be 
commenced  and   carried   out   aeainst  all   those 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  8 1 

who,  by  advice  or  personal  aid,  were  the  abet- 
tors of  his  escape."1 

On  the  13th  of  July,  Danton  cried  out  at 
the  Jacobins :  "  Kings  have  never  treated  in 
good  faith  with  peoples  who  wished  to  re- 
cover their  liberty.  Let  the  National  As- 
sembly tremble  ;  the  nation,  regenerated  by 
liberty,  has  become  a  Hercules  who  will  crush 
the  serpents  which  seek  to  devour  it.  It  will 
achieve  its  twelve  labors  in  exterminating  all 
its  enemies  ! "  2 

Finally,  on  Friday,  the  15th  of  July,  the  As- 
sembly refused  to  take  any  action  tending  to 
bring  the  King  to  trial,  and  on  Saturday,  the 
16th,  the  Constitutional-Royalist  party  tri- 
umphed, and,  on  the  motion  of  M.  Desmeu- 
niers,  secured  the  passage  of  a  decree  by  which 
the  Assembly  declared  that,  "  The  effect  of 
the  decree  of  the  25th  of  June,  which  suspended 
the  execution  of  the  royal  functions  and  the 
executive  power  in  the  hands  of  the  King, 
should  remain  in  force  until  the  Constitution 
should  be  presented  to  the  King  and  accepted 
by  him."  This  action,  which  showed  plainly 
that  the  Assembly  intended  to  keep  Louis  on 

1  Aulard,  tome  iii.,  pp.  3-10. 

■  Ibid.,  p.  13  (note). 

3  Buchez  et  Roux,  Histoire  Parlcmentaire,  etc.,  tome  xi.,  p.  97. 
6 


82  Essays  on  French  History. 

his  throne,  aroused  determined  opposition 
among  the  more  radical  republicans,  and  they 
planned  a  great  demonstration  to  take  place 
on  Sunday,  the  17th  of  July,  at  the  Champ-de- 
Mars,  when  the  people  of  Paris  should  sign  a 
petition  demanding  the  King's  deposition.  By 
this  means  they  hoped  to  force  the  Assembly 
to  carry  out  their  wishes.  The  demonstration 
took  place  and  the  signing  of  the  petition  went 
on  quietly  enough  until  the  crowd  discovered 
two  men  who  had  concealed  themselves  under 
the  great  altar  which  had  been  erected  in  the 
centre  of  the  place.  Some  one  cried  out  that 
they  had  gunpowder  and  intended  to  blow  up 
the  altar  and  all  the  people  who  were  on  it. 
They  were  dragged  out  at  once  and,  not  being 
able  to  satisfactorily  explain  their  presence, 
their  heads  were  cut  off  and  paraded  about  on 
pikes  amid  great  excitement.  When  the  news 
of  this  outrage  reached  the  Hotel-de-Ville  the 
Municipality  ordered  the  proclamation  of 
martial  law,  and,  about  half-past  seven  in  the 
evening,  Lafayette  and  Bailly,  Mayor  of  Paris, 
with  some  companies  of  the  National  Guard 
appeared  on  the  Champ-de-Mars  to  put  down 
the  disturbance.  Bailly  ordered  the  crowd  to 
disperse,  but  they  simply  hooted  him,  and  then 


The  CI 21b  of  the  Jacobi7is.  83 

Lafayette  ordered  his  men  to  fire.  About 
twelve  people  were  killed,  and  the  remainder 
took  to  their  heels. 

On  the  1 8th  of  July,  the  day  following  this 
affair  of  the  Champ-de-Mars,  Lord  Gower, 
then  English  Ambassador  at  Paris,  wrote  as 
follows  to  his  Government :  "  The  proceedings 
of  the  National  Assembly  on  Friday  last  with 
regard  to  the  King  having  occasioned  much 
fermentation,  and  the  next  morning  a  crowd 
of  people  assembled  around  the  Antel  de  la 
Patrie  being  harangued  by  deputations  from 
the  Club  of  the  Jacobins,  who  not  only  spoke 
of  the  King  and  the  royal  family  in  the  most 
opprobrious  terms,  but  reviled  the  Assembly, 
they  gave  directions  to  the  ministers,  the  de- 
partment, and  the  municipality  to  use  every 
possible  exertion  in  order  to  maintain  peace  and 
enforce  the  laws.  Yesterday  morning  two  unfor- 
tunate men  were  discovered  concealed  under  the 
Antel  de  la  Patrie,  it  is  supposed  out  of  a  mere 
frolic,  for  which  they  paid  dear.  It  was  spread 
about  that  they  were  concealed  there  with  a 
design  to  blow  up  the  altar,  and  summary  jus- 
tice was  executed  upon  them  ;  their  heads, 
being  severed  from  their  bodies,  were  carried 
on    pikes,  and    the    mangled   bodies    dragged 


84  Essays  on  French  History. 

in  a  horrid  manner  along  the  streets  ;  a  troop 
of  cavalry,  to  the  amount  of  some  hundreds, 
and  infantry  arrived  time  enough  to  prevent 
this  horrid  spectacle  from  being  exhibited  in  the 
midst  of  Paris  ;  but  as  soon  as  they  were  departed 
the  crowd  reassembled  in  the  Champ-de-Mars, 
and  it  was  judged  expedient  that  M.  de  Lafayette 
and  the  Mayor  of  Paris  should  go  there  with  a 
considerable  force  and  proclaim  martial  law. 
Being  not  only  insulted,  but  pelted  with  stones, 
the  Guards  were  at  length  obliged  to  fire  ;  ten 
or  twelve  men  are  said  to  be  killed,  about  as 
many  wounded,  and  some  are  carried  to  prison. 
Paris  is  at  present  perfectly  quiet."  On  July 
2 2d  he  wrote  again  :  "  As  long  as  the  red  flag 
continues  to  be  displayed  at  the  H6tel-de-Ville, 
we  may  expect  to  feel  the  effects  of  that  energy 
which  military  law  has  given  to  Government. 
A  wonderful  change  has  taken  place  since  the 
disturbances  of  the  17th  compelled  the  ma- 
jority of  the  Assembly  to  be  sensible  of  its 
power.  It  is  calculated  that  two  hundred 
people  have  been  imprisoned  since  that  event, 
upon  suspicion  of  fomenting  sedition  by  writing 
or  by  other  means.  Danton  is  fled,  and  M. 
Robespierre,  the  great  Dhwnciatettr  and,  by 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  85 

office,  Accusateur  publique,  is  about  to  be  de- 
nonce  himself."  ' 

It  is  now  necessary  to  see  what  part  the 
Jacobin  Club  actually  took  in  this  affair  of  the 
Champ-de-Mars  of  which  they  are  commonly 
supposed  to  have  been  the  instigators. 

Le  Babillard  of  July  1 8th  contains  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  the  events  of  July  16th,  the 
day  before  the  great  demonstration  :  "At  noon, 
four  commissioners  from  the  Jacobins  arrived 
carrying  copies  of  the  petition  which  was  to 
be  addressed  to  the  legislative  body.  It  was 
read  :  on  one  side  by  an  Englishman,  a  small 
man,  with  light  curly  hair  ;  on  the  other  side 
by  a  somewhat  taller  man,  with  red  hair,  who 
wore  a  red  coat.  The  sieur  Danton,  mounted 
on  one  of  the  angles  of  the  altar,  delivered  an 
animated  speech ;  the  crowd,  collected  around 
this  virtuous  tribune,  made  it  impossible  for  us 
to  hear  him."  But  the  most  detailed  state- 
ment concerning  the  action  of  the  Jacobins  on 
the  1 6th  and  17th  of  July  is  that  drawn  up 
by  the  Society  itself  on  July  20,  1 79 1 ,  and 
which  is  given  by  M.  Aulard  in  his  collection 
of  the  Jacobin  documents.2 

1  Dispatches  of  Lord  Gower  (i  790-1 792),  pp.  106-108. 
s  Aulard,  tome  iii.,  p.   42. 


86  Essays  on  French  Histoiy. 

"The  petition,"  it  says,  "was  not  drawn  up 
in  a  meeting  of  the  Society  of  the  Friends  of 
the  Constitution,  because  the  law  declared 
that  petitions  were  to  be  made  individually 
and  not  collectively.  The  meeting  of  Friday 
evening  (the  1 5th)  had  adjourned,  when  a  num- 
ber of  citizens,  not  members  of  the  Society,  came 
suddenly  into  its  place  of  meeting.  It  was  then 
declared  that  the  meeting  they  held  was  not 
that  of  the  Society  but  a  gathering  of  citizens 
acting  as  individuals,  and,  having  consulted 
regarding  a  petition  and  upon  the  form  of 
drawing  it  up,  they  agreed  upon  its  object  and 
named  two  persons  among  them  as  com- 
missioners to  draw  it  up.  The  following 
morning  (the  16th)  these  same  citizens  met  in 
the  Convent  of  the  Jacobins,  all  doors  being 
open,  listened  to  the  reading  of  the  petition, 
approved  it,  named  commissioners  to  carry 
copies  to  the  Champ-de-Mars  to  the  citizens 
who  were  to  assemble  there.  They  consulted 
the  members  of  the  Society  upon  this  proceed- 
ing. The  members  called  their  attention  to 
Article  62  of  the  Municipal  Regulations  which 
ordered  the  Municipality  to  prevent  all  gather- 
ings. They  named  twelve  commissioners ; 
their  powers  were   not  given  in  the  name  of 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  8  7 

the  Society  but  in  the  name  of  the  citizens  in- 
tending to  make  the  petition,  and  they  were 
to  give  notice  of  the  terms  of  the  law  when 
they  had  assembled  about  the  Atitel  de  la 
Pah'ie.  The procureur-syndic  of  the  commune 
gave  to  the  commissioners  the  act  of  this  noti- 
fication. The  commissioners  arrived  on  the 
field  of  the  Federation.  There,  certain  spirits, 
imbued  with  pernicious  ideas  of  bad  repub- 
licanism, had  drawn  up  petitions  of  which  the 
commissioners  knew  nothing.  Their  petition 
was  generally  criticised  from  the  fact  that  it 
contained  the  words,  '  and  to  take  measures 
to  replace  him  by  all  constitutional  means.'  ! 
They  were  not  willing  to  sign  with  these  limit- 
ations. Some  took  the  liberty  to  add,  after 
the  words,  '  Louis  XVI.  for  their  king,'  these 
words,  '  nor  any  other.'  The  commissioners 
were  not  able  to  persuade  them  to  make  no 
change,  and  it  was  agreed  to  consult  the  So- 
ciety of  the  Friends  of  the   Constitution  upon 

1  The  last  clause  of  the  petition  was  as  follows  :  "  They  demand 
formally  and  specially  that  the  National  Assembly  agree  to  receive, 
in  the  name  of  the  nation,  the  abdication  made  the  21st  of  June  by 
Louis  XVI.  of  the  Crown  which  had  been  delegated  to  him,  and  to 
take  measures  to  replace  him  by  all  constitutional  means  ;  the  under- 
signed declare  that  they  will  never  recognize  Louis  XVI.  for  their  king, 
unless  the  majority  of  the  nation  express  a  wish  contrary  to  that  of 
the  present  petition." — Aulard,  tome  iii.,  p.  20. 


88  Essays  on  French  History. 

the  matter.  A  large  deputation  arrived  in 
the  Jacobin  Convent.  The  citizens  who  were 
there  heard  the  speaker  who,  in  a  clever  speech, 
advanced  the  most  severely  constitutional  prin- 
ciples, and  concluded  by  declaring  that  the  peti- 
tion ought  neither  to  receive  subtraction  nor  ad- 
dition. This  was  received  with  great  applause, 
and  after  it  had  been  declared  that  the  citizens 
assembled  there  were  not  holding  a  meeting-  of 
the  Friends  of  the  Constitution,  but  that  that 
Society  would  hold  its  meeting  in  the  evening, 
further  discussion  was  postponed  until  that 
time. 

"  On  Saturday  evening,  the  Society  met  and 
a  very  numerous  deputation  was  admitted  into 
a  reserved  portion  of  the  hall.  The  citizens 
who  composed  it,  about  two  hundred  in  num- 
ber, took  no  part  in  the  deliberations  of  the 
Society.  Their  demand  was  discussed  and 
after  four  hours  of  most  thorough  discussion, 
the  Society,  always  mindful  of  its  principles, 
declared  that  every  citizen  who  was  a  Friend  of 
the  Constitution  ought  not  to  sign  the  peti- 
tion presented  by  the  deputation,  since  in  it 
the  words  '  and  to  take  measures  to  replace 
him  by  all  constitutional  means '  were  omitted. 
The  deputation  was  entirely  dissuaded,  and  the 


The  Chib  of  the  Jacobins.  89 

reply  which  it  addressed  contained  the  recom- 
mendation to  the  citizens  to  conform  to  the 
Constitution. 

"At  this  time  a  deputy  from  the  National 
Assembly  came  suddenly  in  who  gave  to  the 
President  the  text  of  a  decree '  by  which  the 
Assembly  had  at  that  instant  decided  the  fate 
of  the  Kine-  The  decree  was  read  and  it  was 
declared  that  the  petition  had  no  longer  any 
place.  On  Sunday  morning,  the  citizen  who 
had  presided  (a  member  of  the  Society)  went 
to  suppress  the  edition  of  the  petition,  while 
others  who  had  assembled  declared  that  they 
would  go  to  the  Champ-de-Mars  in  order  to  in- 
form the  citizens  who  had  assembled  there  of 
the  decree  of  the  previous  evening,  and  of  the 
necessity  that  now  existed  of  stopping  the 
signing. 

"  These  facts  clearly  prove  that  the  Society 
of  the  Friends  of  the  Constitution  has  neither 
proposed,  nor  drawn  up,  nor  adopted  the  peti- 
tion ;  that  it  has  simply  been  consulted  upon  the 
suppression  of  a  phrase  ;  that  its  decision  has 
been  entirely  in  conformity  with  its  principles  ; 
that  it  has  solemnly  and  according  to  its  con- 
viction defended  the  decrees  ;  that  its  members 
have  stopped  the  signing  ;  and  that  all  the  rest 

1  This  is  the  decree  given  on  page  81. 


90  Essays  on  French  History. 

is  the  work  of  citizens  who  used  the  meeting- 
place  of  the  Society  to  carry  out  their  right  of 
petition  ;  that  their  manifest  intentions  were 
right ;  that  they  were  legally  prevented  by  the 
Municipality ;  that  the  atrocious  crimes  com- 
mitted at  the  Gros-Caillou '  are  not  to  be  laid 
to  the  charge  of  the  citizens  who  made  the 
petition  ;  and  that  all  good  citizens  ought  to 
defend,  by  the  most  pronounced  testimony  of 
their  esteem,  a  Society  all  of  whose  efforts 
have  constantly  been  directed  to  establish  the 
Constitution,  and  whose  vigilance  has  so  fre- 
quently denounced  to  the  Committees  of  the 
National  Assembly  the  enemies  of  the  French 
People,  who  are  the  only  ones  to  be  feared 
and  calumniated." 

Although  in  the  above  statement  there  is  an 
evident  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Jacobins  to 
shift  all  responsibility  in  the  affair  of  the 
Champ-de-Mars  upon  other  shoulders  than 
their  own,  yet  it  is  probable  that  the  Club  as 
a  whole  did  not  approve  of  the  course  taken 
by  the  more  radical  members  of  their  party, 
and  the  famous  split  in  the  Society,  which  was 
the  immediate  result  of  this  affair,  confirms  the 
statement.     The  real  instigators  of  the  affair 

1  Gros-Caillou  was  an  entrance  to  the  Champ-de-Mars. 


The  Club  of  the  yacobins.  9 1 

were  undoubtedly  Marat,  Danton,  Desmoulins, 
and  the  more  radical  republicans  who  had 
never  ceased  to  cry  out,  since  the  King's 
return  from  Varennes,  that  the  throne  must 
be  abolished. 

The  so-called  "  massacre  "  of  the  Champ-de- 
Mars,  however,  is  instructive,  since  it  is  the 
one  occasion  in  the  course  of  the  Revolution 
when  the  law-and-order  party  firmly  asserted 
themselves,  and,  for  the  moment,  their  victory 
was  complete.  Danton  retired  to  his  home  at 
Arcis-sur-Aube,  Marat  concealed  himself,  in- 
tending to  escape  to  England,  Camille  Des- 
moulins suspended  the  issue  of  his  journal. 
Had  the  Constitutionalists  known  how  to  fol- 
low up  their  victory  they  might  perhaps  have 
firmly  re-established  Louis  on  his  throne.  The 
schism  in  the  Jacobin  Club,  which  was  the 
result  of  this  affair,  caused  the  more  moderate 
members  to  withdraw  from  the  Mother  Society 
and  form  a  new  Club,  which  held  its  meetings 
in  the  Convent  of  the  Feuillants  and  took  the 
name  of  the  "  Society  of  the  Friends  of  the 
Constitution  Meeting  at  the  Feuillants."  The 
only  Jacobins  of  note  who  remained  at  the 
club  in  the  Rue  Saint-Honore  were  Robes- 
pierre, Buzot,  Petion,  and  Corroller. 


92  Essays  on  French  History. 

The  new  club  soon  numbered  seven  hundred 
and  ninety-eight  members,  the  most  prominent 
among  them  being  Barere,  Boissy  d'Anglas, 
Chateauneuf-Randon,  Cochon,  Dubois-Crance, 
Gobel,  the  Due  d'Orleans,  Prieur  (de  la  Marne), 
Rabaut  Saint-Etienne,  Sieyes,  and  Talleyrand. 
In  Le Babillard  of  July  19th  we  find  the  follow- 
ing :  "  Club  of  the  Jacobins. — All  the  deputies 
who  were  members  of  it,  with  the  exception  of 
Messieurs  Robespierre,  Buzot,  Petion,  Gre- 
goire,  and  Prieur,  have  left  this  Society,  which 
is  no  longer  that  of  the  Friends  of  the  Con- 
stitution. They  have  formed  a  new  one,  which 
holds  its  meetings  at  the  Feuillants.  It  is 
there  that  the  true  friends  of  the  Constitution, 
who  have  sworn  to  live  to  support  it  and  die 
to  defend  it,  should  rally.  It  is  evident  that 
this  title  does  not  belong  to  the  factious  who 
have  been  protesting  against  the  decrees  dic- 
tated by  the  constitutional  law  of  the  state." 

The  Constitutional  party,  however,  owing  to 
its  want  of  union  and  lack  of  practical  ability, 
failed  to  reap  the  fruits  of  its  victory.  Many 
of  those  who  had  joined  the  new  club  soon  left 
it  and  returned  to  the  club  in  the  Rue  Saint- 
Honore.  The  Jacobin  leaders  reappeared  in 
public  life,  and  slowly  but  surely  regained  their 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  93 

influence.  And  the  radical  republicans  never 
foro-ot  or  foreave  the  "massacre"  of  the 
Champ-de-Mars.  When  their  day  of  triumph 
came,  in  '93,  it  was  made  the  basis  of  many  an 
accusation  ;  notably  in  the  case  of  poor  old 
Bailly,  whom  they  guillotined  upon  the  very 
spot  where  he  had  displayed  the  Drapeau 
Rouge. 

On  the  20th  of  April,  1792,  King  Louis 
XVI.,  accompanied  by  his  ministers,  appeared 
in  the  Assembly,  and,  having  heard  a  report  of 
General  Dumouriez  advising  the  commence- 
ment of  war  with  Austria,  his  Majesty  formally 
proposed  that  war  be  declared  against  the  King 
of  Hungary  and  Bohemia.  Thus  began  that 
ten  years'  struggle  which  was  largely  instru- 
mental in  the  final  overthrow  of  the  Bourbon 
monarchy,  made  possible  the  Reign  of  Terror, 
and  ended  by  placing  a  "  Soldier  of  Fortune  " 
upon  the  throne  of  France.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  the  circumstances  which  led  to  this 
memorable  declaration  of  war,  and  the  part 
taken  in  regard  to  it  by  the  Jacobins. 

The  war  aeitation  was  a  manoeuvre  on  the 
part  of  the  Girondins,  and  especially  of  Brissot, 
Guadet,  and  Gensonne,  who  had  conceived  the 
idea  that  a  war  would  be  the  most  effectual 


94  Essays  on  French  History. 

means  of  overthrowing  the  monarchy  and  estab- 
lishing a  republic.  They  vigorously  attacked 
the  Queen's  circle,  which  they  called  "the  Aus- 
trian Committee,"  and  also  the  Emperor  Leo- 
pold, the  brother  of  Marie  Antoinette,  and, 
by  their  clamor  and  their  eloquence,  soon  had 
a  large  part  of  the  people  of  Paris  and  of 
France,  whose  love  of  military  glory  has 
always  been  easily  aroused,  loudly  demanding 
war.  A  portion  of  the  Court  party,  too,  were 
secretly  in  sympathy  with  the  Girondin  move- 
ment, although  from  a  very  different  motive, 
since  they  hoped  that  by  means  of  a  war 
the  Kinor  nwht  recover  some  of  his  lost  au- 
thority. 

On  the  7th  of  December,  1 791,  Duportail 
resigned  his  position  as  War  Minister  and, 
through  the  efforts  of  Madame  de  Stael,1  was 
succeeded  by  the  gay  and  dashing  diplomat, 
Count  Louis  de  Narbonne.  The  new  Minister 
of  War,  though  he  may  have  lacked  perhaps 
Segur's  ability,  was  still  a  very  clever  man — 
as  he  was  to  prove,  in  later  years,  under  the 
Empire — and  now  felt  that  he  had  an  oppor- 

1  "  Le  Comte  Louis  de  Narbonne  est  enfin  ministre  de  la  guerre. 
Quelle  gloire  pour  Madame  de  Stael  et  quel  plaisir  pour  elle  d'avoir 
toute  l'armee  a  elle." — "  Marie  Antoinette."  Albert  Sorel,  U  Europe 
et  la  Revolution  Francaise,  tome  ii.,  p.  328. 


The  Club  of  the  yacobins.  95 

tunity  to  distinguish  himself.  He  determined 
to  take  advantage  of  the  great  enthusiasm 
aroused  by  the  idea  of  war  and,  by  becoming 
its  champion,  draw  upon  the  King  and  himself 
the  popularity  of  its  promotion.  Let  it  once 
be  thought  that  the  King  had  become  the  soul 
of  the  war  party  and  perhaps  that  unfortunate 
flight  to  Varennes  would  be  forgotten,  and 
should  the  war  turn  out  victorious,  and  Louis 
the  King  and  Louis  Count  Narbonne  become 
laurel-crowned  heroes,  might  he  not  prove 
himself  the  "  great  minister  "  even  as  Richelieu 
and  Mazarin  had  done?  But  these  brilliant 
dreams  were  to  have  a  sudden  ending  for  M. 
de  Narbonne.  The  Emperor  Leopold  died 
on  the  1st  of  March,  1792,  and  on  the  9th,  as 
the  result  of  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  King,  and  largely  through  the  Queen's 
influence,  Narbonne  was  summarily  dismissed 
from  his  office.  With  him  went  any  hope  that 
may  have  existed  of  the  King's  being  able  to 
rally  the  warlike  spirits  in  France  about  him. 
Dumouriez  became  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
and  the  Girondins,  who  had  cried  so  loudly 
for  war,  soon  had  a  larger  and  more  serious 
war  on  their  hands  than  they  could  well  man- 
age.    The  Jacobins,  however,  from  the  first, 


96  Essays  on  French  History. 

resolutely  and  systematically  opposed  the  war.1 
They  knew  that  a  war,  if  successful,  would 
strengthen  either  its  promoters  or  the  execu- 
tive power,  the  Girondins  or  the  King,  and 
that,  if  the  strengthening  of  either  of  these 
powers  should  lead  to  their  own  overthrow, 
there  would  be  immense  bloodshed  in  the 
attempt.  Robespierre,  Danton,  Collot  d'Her- 
bois,  Marat,  Carra,2  Dubois-Crance,  all  opposed 
war  vigorously,  and  the  debates  upon  this  sub- 
ject in  the  Jacobin  Club  during  the  winter  of 
1 791-2,  are  both  interesting  and  instructive. 

On  the  1 6th  of  December,  Brissot,  who  was 
the  main  defender  of  the  war  measure,  made  a 
speech  in  its  behalf,  and  Danton  refuted  his 
arguments  in  a  powerful  reply.  On  the  19th 
of  December,  Billaud-Varenne,  that  Jacobin  of 
Jacobins,  opposed  the  war,  and  on  the  2d  of 
January,  Robespierre,  in  a  lengthy  speech  and 
amid  great  applause,  disproved  the  assertions 
contained  in  Brissot's  second  speech  of  the 
30th  of  December,  in  which  he  had  advocated 
"  the  necessity  of  making  war  against  the 
princes  of  Germany."3 

1  "  La  guerre  selon  les  girondins  assurera  le  succes  de  la  revolu- 
tion, selon  les  jacobins  elle  le  compromettra." — Sorel,  tome  ii.,  p.  314. 

2  Carra,  though  a  Girondin,  opposed  the  war. 

3  Aulard,  tome  iii.,  p.  309. 


The  Club  of  the  Jaeobius.  97 

"These  sentiments  of  the  extreme  Jacobins," 
says  Morse  Stephens,  "  it  is  most  important  to 
notice,  for  it  is  generally  believed  and  has 
often  been  declared  that  they  were  the  real 
authors  of  the  great  war  which  was  to  change 
the  whole  face  of  Europe."  1 

It  is  impossible  within  the  limits  of  this 
paper  to  dwell  upon  the  affair  of  the  20th  of 
June,  1792,  when  the  mob,  for  the  first  time, 
invaded  the  palace  of  the  Tuileries.  A  most 
detailed  account  of  the  events  of  that  day  may 
be  found  in  M.  Mortimer-Ternaux's  elaborate 
Histoire  de  la  Terreur?  The  King,  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  right  given  him  by  the  Constitu- 
tion, had  vetoed  two  decrees  passed  by  the 
Assembly,  one  of  which  called  for  the  forma- 
tion of  a  camp  of  twenty  thousand  federes  out- 
side Paris,  the  other  for  the  exile  of  all  priests 
who  had  not  taken  the  constitutional  oath,  and 
on  the  1 2th  of  June  he  had  dismissed  the 
Girondin  Ministry.  These  acts  caused  great 
commotion,  and  had  much  the  same  effect 
upon  the  people  of  Paris  that  Necker's  dis- 
missal had  had  in  i  7S9,  although  Roland  was 
far  from  having  Necker's  popularity,  and  the 

1  Morse  Stephens,  French  Revolution,  ii.,  p.  46. 
*  Tome  i.,  pp.  115-296. 

7 


98  Essays  on  French  History. 

insurrection  of  June  20th  had  been,  for  some 
time,  premeditated,  and,  in  that  respect,  dif- 
fered entirely  from  the  spontaneous  rising 
which,  in  1789,  led  to  the  fall  of  the  Bastile. 
Though  the  Jacobin  leaders,  Danton  and 
Robespierre,  feeling  that  the  time  for  decisive 
action  against  the  monarchy  had  not  yet  come, 
discouraged  any  demonstration,  still  the  events 
of  June  20th,  which  were  mainly  planned  and 
carried  out  by  subaltern  actors,  are  significant 
of  the  power  of  the  Jacobin  party.  As  a  recent 
English  authority  upon  the  Revolution  has 
truly  said  :  "  Without  the  success  of  the  20th  of 
June  it  may  be  doubted  at  what  particular 
period  the  actual  capture  of  the  Tuileries, 
which  took  place  on  August  10th,  would  have 
occurred."  * 

Not  the  least  dramatic  incident  of  that  day — 
when  the  mob,  having  presented  their  petition 
to  the  Assembly  and  filed  through  its  hall, 
finally  forced  their  way  into  the  palace,  and 
for  two  hours  insulted  the  King  and  the  royal 
family — was  the  appearance  of  the  descendant 
of  the  Grand  Monarque  upon  the  Tuileries' 
balcony  with  the  bonnet  rouge  upon  his  head. 
u  On  what  precise  day,  during  the  interval  of 

1  Morse  Stephens,  ii.,  p.  82. 


The  Chib  of  the  Jacobins.  99 

the  fifty  days  between  June  20  and  August 
10,  1792,  the  Jacobins  decided  that  an  attack 
should  be  made  on  the  Tuileries  and  the  royal 
family  finally  overthrown,  it  is  impossible  to 
discover,  but  the  first  meeting  of  the  Secret 
Directory  of  Insurrection,  in  which  the  meas- 
ures to  be  adopted  were  discussed,  did  not 
take  place  till  July  26th."  '  On  the  25th  of 
July,  Prussia  joined  Austria  in  declaring  war, 
and  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  issued  his  famous 
proclamation,  in  which  he  declared  that  "  the 
inhabitants  of  cities,  towns,  or  villages,  who 
should  defend  themselves  against  the  troops 
of  their  Imperial  and  Royal  Majesties,2  should 
be  punished  instantly  with  all  the  rigor  of  the 
laws  of  war,  and  if  the  palace  of  the  Tuileries 
were  forced  or  the  least  insult  offered  to  their 
Majesties,  the  King  and  Queen,  the  city  of 
Paris  should  be  given  up  to  military  execution 
and  total  destruction."3 

This  untimely  proclamation  defeated  its  own 
ends,  and,  far  from  terrifying  the  people  of 
Paris    into   submission,  only   roused    them   to 

1  Morse  Stephens,  ii.,  p.  107. 

2  The  King  of  Prussia  and  the  Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
Francis  did  not  take  the  title  of  "  Emperor  of  Austria"  until  rSc>4. 

3  This  proclamation  (dated  at  Coblentz,  July  25th)  is  given  in  full 
by  Mortimer-Ternaux,  tome  ii.,  pp.  160,  161. 


ioo  Essays  on  French  History. 

greater  fury.  It  was  to  no  purpose  that  Louis 
XVI. ,  on  the  3d  of  August,  sent  a  message  to 
the  Assembly  disavowing  any  participation  in 
the  Brunswick  manifesto  ; — the  fate  of  the 
monarchy  was  sealed.  "  I  have  given  to  the 
secretary,"  said  M.  Merlin,  at  the  meeting  of 
the  Jacobins  on  July  27th,  "the  counter-dec- 
laration of  Kincr  Francis  to  the  declaration  of 
war  of  the  King  of  the  French.  We  can  per- 
ceive from  that  document  that  it  is  Louis 
XVI.,  alone,  who  is  the  author  of  all  our  mis- 
fortunes ;  that  it  is  for  Louis  XVI.,  alone,  and 
the  honor  of  crowned  heads,  that  the  allied 
powers  are  armed  against  us."  1  At  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Jacobins  on  the  29th  of  July,  the 
speech  of  M.  Anthoine,  in  which  he  demanded 
the  King's  dethronement  and  expressed  his 
views  regarding  the  results  which,  he  hoped, 
that  event  would  bring  about,  called  forth  great 
applause.  "  As  long  as  we  do  not  demand  the 
dethronement  of  Louis  XVI.,"  he  said,  "we  do 
nothing  for  liberty.  With  the  dethronement  of 
the  King,  therefore,  I  demand  that  of  his  family, 
in  short  a  reformation  of  the  executive  power ; 
and  my  demand  is  constitutional.  The  unity 
of    that    power  is  constitutional.      Dethrone- 

1  Aulard,  tome  iv.,  p.  146. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  101 

ment  is  urgent,  and  then  the  safety  of  the 
people  will  be  established.  The  Austrians 
and  Prussians  will  return  to  the  Elbe  ;  when 
we  shall  no  longer  have  a  king,  they  will  no 
longer  make  war  on  us  ;  they  will  abandon  the 
cause  of  the  nobles,  who  will,  one  by  one, 
return,  or,  do  what  would  be  vastly  better,  re- 
main in  eternal  exile."  x 

On  the  30th  of  July,  the  battalion  of  the 
Marseillais,  five  hundred  strong,  who  had  left 
Marseilles  on  July  2d,  marched  into  Paris  sing- 
ing Rouget  de  Lisle's  immortal  song — soon  to 
become  the  battle-hymn  of  the  new  French 
Republic — "A/Sous,  enfants  de  la  patrie,  le  jour 
du  gloire  est  arrive  /  "  They  were  soon  in- 
volved in  a  contest  with  the  National  Guards  2 
which  might  have  resulted  in  an  attack  on  the 
Tuileries,  but  order  was  restored,  and  though 
the  King's  downfall  did  not  immediately  fol- 
low the  first  singing  of  the  Marseillaise  in 
Paris,  yet  that  downfall  was  fully  decided 
upon.  It  was  simply  a  question  of  organizing 
a  sufficiently  thorough  insurrection  to  make 
success  certain,  and  to   that  end  the  Jacobin 

1  Aulard,  tome  iv.,  pp.  156-158. 

5  "  Les  Marseillais  arrivent  dans  la  capitale  (30  Juillet),  ils  entrent 
a  une  heure  et  a  cinq  heures  le  sang  des  gardes  nationaux  a  coule.*' — 
Montgaillard,  Histoire  de  France,  tome  iv.,  p.  137. 


102  Essays  on  French  History. 

leaders  applied  themselves  with  vigor.  It 
was  at  the  instigation  of  Danton  that  the 
Paris  sections  voted  the  dethronement  of  the 
King.1 

On  the  31st  of  July,  the  section  Mauconseil 2 
drew  up  the  following  petition,  which  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Assembly  :  "  Considering  that  it 
is  impossible  to  save  liberty  by  the  Constitu- 
tion, that  we  cannot  recognize  the  Constitution 
as  an  expression  of  the  general  will,  and  that 
Louis  XVI.  has  lost  the  confidence  of  the 
nation,  we  consequently  declare  in  the  most 
authentic  and  solemn  manner,  to  all  our 
brothers,  that  we  will  no  longer  recognize 
Louis  XVI.  as  King  of  the  French."3  Although 
M.  Carra  declared  that  this  petition  had  received 
the  approval  of  a  majority  of  the  sections  of 
Paris,  such  was  not  the  case.  Out  of  the  forty- 
eight  Paris  sections,  only  fourteen  signed  the 
petition,  sixteen  rejected  it,  ten  passed  it  by  in 
silence,  and  for  the  remaining  eight,  documents 

1  "  La  Gironde  avait  prepare  le  terrain  du  combat,  la  declaration 
de  Brunswick  offrit  le  pretexte  de  l'agression.  Aussitot  sous  l'impul- 
sion  de  Danton  les  sections  de  Paris  voterent  la  de'che'ance  du  Roi." 
— Sorel,  tome  ii.,  p.  513. 

3  "  Cette  section,  qui  se  tenait,  en  1792,  dans  l'eglise  Saint-Jacques- 
l'Hopital,  comprenait  1700  citoyens  actifs." — Mortimer-Ternau: \ 
tome  ii.,  p.  423  (note). 

*  Ibid.,  tome  ii.,  p.  174. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  1 03 

are  wanting  to  prove  their  action.1  It  was 
publicly  declared,  by  the  sections  Ouinze- 
Vingts2  and  Mauconseil,  that,  if  the  Assembly 
did  not  adopt  the  petition  by  the  night  of 
August  9th,  the  petitioners  would  appear  on 
August  ioth,en  masse,  and  back  their  demands 
by  force  of  arms.  Some  of  the  more  violent 
republicans  attempted  to  declare  the  insurrec- 
tion on  the  8th  of  August  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Jacobins,3  but  more  prudent  members  prevented 
the  project,  believing  that  it  was  better  to  wait 
until  the  day  which  the  sections  Ouinze-Vingts 
and  Mauconseil  had  pompously  fixed  as  the  "ex- 
treme limit  of  popular  patience  "  {terme  ex- 
treme dc  patience  populaire).*  The  day  of  "the 
9th  of  August,  therefore,  was  entirely  taken 
up  by  preparations  for  attack,  and,  the  Assem- 
bly having  adjourned  the  question  of  dethrone- 
ment, the  armed  sections  prepared  to  carry 
out  their  plans.  Danton  and  Desmoulins 
were  occupied  during  a  great  part  of  the  night 
in  haranguing   the  Marseillais  and   the  inhab- 

1  Mortimer-Ternaux,  tome  ii.,  p.  443  (note). 

2  "  Cette  section  se  tenait,    en  1792,   dans   l'eglise  des  Enfants- 
Trouves  et  comprenait  2000  citoyens  actifs." — Ibid.,  tome  ii.,  p.  427. 

3  See  Seance  du  Mercredi  8  Aoilt,    1792. — Aulard,    tome  iv.,  pp. 
I 86-19 I. 

4  Mortimer-Ternaux,  tome  ii.,  p.  216. 


104  Essays  on  French  History. 

itants  of  the  Faubourg  Saint-Antoine.  The 
Revolutionary  Commune,  the  enfant  terrible  of 
the  Jacobin  Society,  as  M.  Schmidt !  calls  it, 
established  itself  at  the  Hotel-de-Ville,  and  de- 
clared the  Paris  Municipality  suspended  from 
its  powers.  At  midnight  the  tocsin  was 
sounded,  and  at  eight  o'clock  on  the  morning 
of  the  ioth  of  August,  Westermann  prepared 
to  lead  his  forces  against  the  palace  of  the 
Tuileries.  What  means  of  resistance  had 
royalty,  in  its  last  struggle  for  existence, 
against  the  ever-growing  insurrection  ? 

The  defence  of  the  Tuileries  had  been  in- 
trusted to  M.  Mandat,  who  had,  as  his  assist- 
ants, the  Baron  de  Viomenil  and  M.  d'Her- 
villy.  It  was  Mandat's  special  purpose  to 
gather  about  the  palace  those  battalions  of  the 
National  Guard — about  two  thousand  strono- 
— upon  whose  loyalty  to  the  monarchy  he 
thought  he  could  rely,  but  he  placed  his  confi- 
dence chiefly  in  the  faithful  Swiss  Guards  of 
the  King,  for  although  by  the  decree  of  July 
17th  they  had  been  ordered  to  leave  Paris, 
they  had  gone  only  as  far  as  their  barracks  at 
Courbevoie,  and  hence  were  recalled,  on  the 
8th  of  August,  by  the  Minister  of  War.     With 

1  A.  Schmidt,   Tableaux  de  la  Revolution  Francaise,  p.  83. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  105 

the  National  battalions  in  the  garden  of  the 
Tuileries,  the  Swiss  Guards  in  the  Place  du 
Carrousel  and  in  the  interior  of  the  palace, 
and  his  reserve  of  o-unners  on  the  bridges  and 
at  the  Pont  Neuf,  M.  Mandat,  therefore,  felt 
confident  in  his  ability  to  hold  his  own.  At 
half-past  six  in  the  morning  he  received  an 
order  from  Petion,  Mayor  of  Paris,  to  present 
himself  at  the  Hotel-de-Ville, — an  order  which, 
unfortunately  for  himself  and  his  cause,  he 
obeyed,  only  to  meet  a  swift  death  at  the 
hands  of  exasperated  insurgents  on  the  Place 
de  Greve.  Thus  royalty,  deprived  of  its  last 
able  man,  had  to  prepare  as  best  it  could  to 
face  the  coming-  storm. 

But  had  French  royalty,  now  at  its  last  gasp, 
no  other  defenders  than  the  foreign  mer- 
cenaries in  the  Place  du  Carrousel  and  the 
lukewarm  National  Guards  in  the  Tuileries' 
gardens?  Yes,  a  few,  and  as  M.  d'Hervilly 
ordered  the  usher  to  open  the  door  of  the 
council-chamber  to  the  "  French  nobility,"  they 
entered — to  attend  royalty's  last  levee.  "  Two 
hundred  persons  entered  the  room  nearest  to 
that  in  which  the  royal  family  were,"  says 
Madame  Campan.  "  I  saw  few  people  be- 
longing   to    the  court,    many    whose    features 


106  Essays  on  French  History. 

were  unknown  to  me,  and  some  who  figured 
technically  without  right  among  what  was 
called  the  noblesse,  but  whose  self-devotion  en- 
nobled them  at  once.  They  were  all  so  badly 
armed  that,  even  in  that  situation,  the  in- 
domitable French  liveliness  indulged  in  jests."  * 
A  very  different  assemblage  truly,  from  the 
glittering  crowd  that,  in  the  old  days  at  Ver- 
sailles, filled  the  CEil-de-Bceuf l  to  overflowing 
when  De  Breze,3  throwing  open  the  doors  of 
the  royal  bedchamber,  was  wont  to  announce 
in  pompous  tones,  "  Messieurs,  le  Roi  votes 
accorde  les  grandes  entrees.'''  (Gentlemen, 
the  King  grants  you  the  grand  entrance.) 
Where  were  the  de  Brissacs,  de  Besenvals, 
de  Polignacs,  d'Adhemars,  de  Coignys,  de 
Vaudreuils,4  and  all  the  rest  who,  in  the 
heyday  of  the  monarchy,  had  drawn  so  freely 
from  its  favors  ? — Gone.  Some  were  with 
d'Artois  at  Coblentz,  some  at  Vienna,  and 
some  following    at   the    heels  of    Brunswick's 

1  Madame  Campan,  Mdmoires  de  Marie  Antoinette,  p.  371. 

2  The  CEil-de-Bceuf  was  an  antechamber  in  which  the  nobility 
awaited  the  King  at  Versailles. 

3  M.  de  Breze  was  Grand  Master  of  Ceremonies  before  the  Revo- 
lution. 

4  See  article,  "  Le  Petit  Trianon,"  by  Pierre  de  Nolhac,  in  L'Artet 
Lettres,  1889,  for  the  French  nobles  who  figured  most  prominently 
in  the  society  of  Trianon. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  107 

army  hoping,  by  means  of  foreign  bayonets, 
to  regain  positions  which  they  might  never 
have  lost  had  they  known  how  to  remain 
and   defend   them.1 

About  half-past  seven  the  advance  guard 
of  the  sections  be^an  to  fill  the  Place  du 
Carrousel  and,  though  they  made  some  tumult 
and  cried  loudly  "  Down  with  M.  Veto  !"  they 
were  not,  strictly  speaking,  the  insurrectionary 
army  which  was  then  forming  at  the  Hotel- 
de-Ville.  It  was  shortly  after  eight  o'clock 
when  the  King,  after  some  hesitation,  decided 
to  follow  the  advice  given  him  by  M.  Roederer, 

'  "Who  reasoned  out  the  emigration?  It  has  oftentimes  been 
asked  how  so  extraordinary  a  resolution  came  to  be  taken  ;  how  it 
had  entered  the  minds  of  men  gifted  with  a  certain  amount  of  sense 
that  there  was  any  advantage  to  be  derived  from  abandoning  all  the 
posts  where  they  could  still  exercise  power  ;  of  giving  over  to  the 
enemy  the  regiments  they  commanded,  the  localities  over  which  they 
had  control  ;  of  delivering  up  completely  to  the  teachings  of  the 
opposite  party  the  peasantry,  over  whom,  in  a  goodly  number  of 
provinces,  a  valuable  influence  might  be  exerted,  and  among  whom 
thev  still  had  many  friends, — and  all  this,  to  return  for  the  purpose  of 
conquering,  at  the  sword's  point,  positions,  a  number  of  which  at 
least  could  be  held  without  a  fight.  The  voluntary  going  into  exile 
of  nearly  the  whole  nobility  of  France,  of  many  magistrates,  of  a 
large  number  of  women  and  children, — this  resolve,  without  a  pre- 
cedent in  history,  was  not  conceived  and  determined  upon  as  a  state 
measure  ;  chance  brought  it  about.  A  few,  in  the  first  instance,  fol- 
lowed the  princes  who  had  been  obliged,  on  the  14th  of  July,  to  seek 
safety  out  of  France,  and  others  followed  them." — Memoirs  of  Chan- 
cellor Pasquier,  i.,  p.  64. 


108  Essays  on  French  History. 

the  proctireur-gcneral-syndic,  and  seek  a  refuge 
in  the  Assembly.  The  royal  family,  there- 
fore, escorted  by  three  hundred  of  the  Na- 
tional Guards,  crossed  the  Tuileries'  garden 
and  entered  the  Assembly-hall,  where  the  King 
informed  the  members  that  he  had  come  there 
to  "  avoid  a  great  crime,"  1  and  the  President 
assured  him  that  he  could  rely  upon  the  firm- 
ness of  the  Assembly.  The  insurrectionary 
army  arrived  on  the  Place  du  Carrousel  and, 
about  half-past  ten,2  opened  fire  upon  the 
Chateau.  The  Swiss  Guards  answered  prompt- 
ly, and  after  the  combat  had  lasted  some  three 
quarters  of  an  hour,  M.  d'Hervilly  arrived 
bringing  an  order  from  the  King  to  the  Swiss 
to  cease  firing  and  withdraw.  In  obedience  to 
this  command,  therefore,  the  Swiss  evacuated 
the  palace  and,  under  a  heavy  fire,  crossed  the 
Tuileries'  garden,  few,  however,  escaping  the 
mounted  gendarmes  who  charged  them  and 
cut  them  to  pieces  on  the  Place  Louis  Ouinze. 
They  were  royalty's  best  defenders,  and  a 
young  Corsican  lieutenant,  who  had  watched 
the  fight  from  a  window  in  the  house  of  the 

1  "  Le  Roi — Je  suis  venu  ici  pour  eviter  un  grand  crime. 

"  M.  le  President — Vous  pouvez,  sire,  compter  sur  la  fermete  de 
l'Assemblee." — Le  Moniteur  Universe!  (reimpression),  No.  225. 

2  Mortimer-Ternaux,  tome  ii.,  p.  322  (note). 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  109 

sieur  de  Bourrienne,1  on  the  Place  du  Car- 
rousel, gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  Swiss,  if 
properly  commanded,  would  have  won.  The 
mob  advanced  slowly  as  the  Swiss  Guards 
retired,  and  entered  the  palace  five  minutes 
after2  the  last  companies  had  abandoned  it,  so 
that,  upon  this  memorable  10th  of  August, 
"  the  palace  of  the  Tuileries,"  as  M.  Mortimer- 
Ternaux  says,  "was  not  captured  by  armed 
force,  but  abandoned  by  order  of  Louis 
XVI."3 

The  insurgents  proceeded  at  once  to  celebrate 
their  triumph.  They  rushed  through  the  pal- 
ace, breaking  and  throwing  out  of  the  windows 
all  objects  that  reminded  them  of  a  detested 
royalty.  Even  the  mirrors  did  not  escape  their 
fury,  for,  said  they,  "  the  Medici-Antoinette4 
has  too  long  studied  in  them  the  hypocritical 
air  which  she  displayed  in  public."  The  dead 
bodies  of  the  Swiss,  cut  and  dragged  about  the 
Tuileries'  garden,  were  treated  with  every  in- 
dignity, and  the  mob  finished  their  high  car- 

1  Bourrienne,  i.,  p.  17. 

2  Mortimer-Ternaux,  tome  ii.,  p.  325. 

3  Ibid.,  ii.,  p.  325. 

*  "  Medici- Antoinette  y  avait  etudie  trop  longtemps  l'air  hypo- 
crite qu'elle  montrait  en  public." — Prudhomme,  Revolutions  de  Pari 's , 
tome  xiii.,  p.  236. 


1 1  o  Essays  on  French  History. 

nival  by  setting  fire  to  a  portion  of  the  palace.1 
Over  at  the  Assembly,  the  King  listened  to  the 
decree  which  suspended  him  from  his  functions, 
— a  decree  which,  curiously  enough,  was  signed 
by  his  own  Minister  of  Justice  (Dejoly),  who 
affixed  to  it  the  seal  of  state.2  So  ended  the 
ioth  of  August,  and  with  it  the  monarchy  of 
the  Bourbons.  The  crown  of  France  lay  tram- 
pled on  the  ground,  and  there  it  was  to  lie 
until  the  day  when  the  young  Corsican  lieu- 
tenant, having  added  to  his  name  the  brilliant 
synonyms  of  Areola,  Rivoli,  and  Marengo, 
and  become  Bonaparte,  First  Consul,  should 
"  pick  it  up  with  the  point  of  his  sword." 3 
The  weeks  which  immediately  followed  the 
victory  of  August  ioth  were  full  of  excitement. 
Girondins  and  Jacobins  divided  the  spoils. 
Roland  and  his  friends  returned  to  office,  and 
Danton  became  Minister  of  Justice  and,  for  a 
time,  the  most  important  man  in  France.  But 
these  two  rival  powers  could  not  long  continue 

1  "  Le  chateau  des  Tuileries  etait  a  la  disposition  des  citoyens,  deja 
les  batiments  qui  separent  les  Tuileries  de  la  place  du  Carrousel 
sont  en  feu,  l'indignation  s'acharne  aveuglement  sur  tous  les  meubles 
renverses  dans  le  chateau." — Le  Motiiteur  Universe!,  No.  225. 

e  Mortimer-Ternaux,  tome  ii.,  p.  344. 

3  "  J'ai  trouve  la  couronne  de  France  par  terre,  et  je  l'ai  ramassee 
avec  la  pointe  de  mon  epee." — Napoleon,  in  Memoir es  de  Madame  de 
Re'miisat,  tome  i.,  p.  380. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  1 1 1 

side  by  side,  and  the  warfare  which  soon  began 
between  the  Girondins  and  the  Jacobins  ended, 
in  1793,  with  the  Coup  d 'Etat  of  June  2d  and 
the  fall  of  the  Gironde.  The  triumphant 
Jacobins,  through  the  great  Committee  of 
Public  Safety,1  which  was  established  in  April, 
1793,  became  the  masters  of  France. 

The  struggle  for  supremacy  now  became  an 
internal  strife  in  the  Jacobin  party  itself, — a 
strife  in  which  the  Hebertists,  who  represented 
the  more  radical  and  violent  spirits,  and  the 
Dantonists,  who  were  the  more  moderate  mem- 
bers (at  the  period  of  the  Terror),  were  crushed, 
each  in  turn ;  leaving  the  supreme  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  middle  party,  the  Robespierrists, 
and  the  spring  of  1 794 — the  period  of  the 
greatest  Jacobin  influence — was  also  the  period 
which  marked  the  height  of  power  attained  by 
the  most  conspicuous  Jacobin  leader,  Maxi- 
milien    Robespierre.      From   the  20th  Prairial 

1  "Apres  le  vote  de  ce  decret,  la  Convention  proceda  immediatement 
a  la  nomination  des  neuf  membres  du  Comite.  Barere  obtient  360 
voix,  Delmas  347,  Breard  325,  Cambon  27S,  Danton  233,  Jean  de  Bry 
227,  Guyton-Morveau  202,  Treilhard  167,  Delacroix  (d'Eure-et-Loir) 
151.  La  premiere  seance  du  Comite  de  Salut  Public  eut  lieu  le  7  avril 
('793)  !  quelques  heures  apres  la  nomination  de  ses  membres.  Tous, 
sauf  Treilhard,  y  assistaient.  Guyton-Morveau  fut  nomme  president, 
sans  doute  en  qualite  de  doyen  d'age  ;  Breard  vice-president,  Barere 
et  Lindet  secretaires." — Gros,  Le  Comite  de  Salut  Public,  pp.  31 
and  39. 


1 1  2  Essays  on  French  History. 

(June  8th),  1794,  the  day  of  Robespierre's 
greatest  triumph,  when,  with  a  docile  conven- 
tion at  his  heels,  he  inaugurated  the  fete  of  his 
"Supreme Being,"  in  the  Tuileries'  garden,  there 
were  some  fifty  days  until  the  wheel  of  fortune 
had  brought  about  the  "  Thermidor,"  1  and  he 
lay,  crushed  and  bleeding,  upon  a  table  in  the 
Hotel-de-Ville,  within  a  few  hours  of  his  scaf- 
fold, an  object  of  derision  to  a  mob  that  had 
long  been  his  worshippers.2 

"  If  the  life  of  Robespierre  in  the  Year 
Two,"  says  d'Hericault,  "  demonstrates  that 
he  did  not  wish  to  end  the  Terror  (to  the 
proofs  found  on  every  page  of  this  book  [his 
Revolution  de  Thermidor]  we  can  add  a  hun- 
dred others,  and  his  speech  of  the  8th  Thermi- 
dor does  not  leave  the  least  doubt  on  the 
subject),  on  the  other  hand,  in  that  very  speech 
we  notice  traces  of  a  less  violent  tone,  we 
find  ourselves  lost  in  the  midst  of  contrary 
affirmations — the  words  of  Freron,  of  Billaud, 
of  Allonville,  of  Beaulieu — which  are  truly  in 
favor  of  the  avocat  of  Arras.     What  are  we  to 

'July  27-28,  1794. 

2  "  On  le  trouva  etendu  dans  une  salle  voisine  du  lieu  des  seances. 
On  dit  qu'en  l'apercevant,  un  des  patriotes  s'approcha  vivement,  le 
regarda  fixement  et  s'ecria  :  '  Oui,  Robespierre,  il  est  un  Etre 
supreme.'  " — D'Hericault,  La  Rivolution  de  Thermidor,  p.  500. 


The  Chib  of  the  Jacobins.  1 1 3 

conclude  from  these  contradictory  statements, 
all  authentic  ?  We  can  only  infer,  as  we  have 
shown,  that  Robespierre  desired  to  mitigate 
the  Terror  somewhat  at  the  same  time  pre- 
serving it, — in  short,  that  Robespierre  wished 
to  regulate  the  Terror.  This  is  the  key  to  the 
history  of  Robespierre  and  of  the  revolution  of 
Thermidor  ;  it  explains  all  apparent  contradic- 
tions, it  conciliates  opposing  theories,  and  with- 
out it  nothing  can  be  rightly  comprehended."  ' 
It  may  have  been  as  d'Hericault  has  stated  ;  it 
may  have  been,  on  the  other  hand,  that  he  was 
hoping  by  a  swift  removal  of  his  enemies  to  end 
the  Terror  and  that,  by  a  curious  combination  of 
events,  his  own  downfall  ended  that  which  he 
was  seeking  to  overthrow.  What  his  real  pur- 
pose was,  what  plans  were  revolving  in  his  mind 
during  the  last  weeks  of  his  life,  history  will 
probably  never  know.  One  thing  is  certain  : 
La  Terreur  was  ended  by  the  "  Thermidor." 

The  first  blows  of  the  Thermidorian  reaction 
fell  naturally  upon  the  Jacobins.  On  the  nth 
of  November,  1  794,  the  Committees  of  Govern- 
ment closed  their  Club,  and  on  the  following 
day  the  Convention  approved  that  action  in 
the  decree  here  given  :  "  The   National   Con- 

1  D'Hericault.  La  Revolution  de  Thermidor,  pp.  367,  36S. 
8 


1 1 4  Essays  on  Freiich  History. 

vention,  having  heard  the  report  which  has 
been  made  in  the  name  of  the  Committees  of 
Public  Safety,  General  Security,  War,  and 
Legislation,  upon  the  Society  of  the  Jacobins, 
decides  that  it  approves  the  measures  taken  by 
the  four  united  Committees  as  contained  in  the 
following  decree  :  21st  Brumaire,  Year  III.,  of 
the  French  Republic,  one  and  indivisible  ;  the 
Committees  of  General  Security,  Public  Safety, 
Legislation,  and  War,  united,  decree  :  1st.  The 
meetings  of  the  Society  of  the  Jacobins  of  Paris 
are  suspended.  2d.  In  consequence,  the  meet- 
ing-hall of  that  Society  shall  be  instantly  closed 
and  the  keys  deposited  at  the  secretary's  office  of 
the  Committee  of  General  Security.  3d.  The 
commission  of  administrative  police  is  charged 
with  the  execution  of  the  present  decree.  4th. 
They  will,  to-morrow,  render  an  account  of  the 
present  decree  to  the  National  Convention."  l 
Thus  after  an  existence  of  nearly  four  years 
the  famous  Jacobin  Club  of  the  Rue  Saint- 
Honore  came  to  an  end. 

According  to  the  Jacobin  doctrine,  all  power 
was  vested  in  the  sovereign  people,  who,  in 
theory,  like  the  king  of  England,  "  could  do  no 
wrong."     Hence  popular  movements,  though 

1  Aulard,  tome  i.,  p.  51. 


The  Club  of  the  Jacobins.  1 1 5 

often  resulting  in  violence  and  bloodshed,  must 
not  be  interfered  with  because  they  were  but 
the  will  of  the  sovereign  people  in  "  sacred 
right  of  insurrection."  Naturally  such  theories 
appealed  strongly  to  the  common  people  of 
that  day.  They  had  long  been  regarded  as  of 
no  consequence  in  the  state, — useful  only  to 
pay  taxes,  to  which  end  they  had  had  to  direct 
all  their  energies.  When  one  day,  therefore, 
they  were  told  that  they  were  sovereigns  in 
whom  all  power  was  vested,  that  they  had  a 
"sacred  right  of  insurrection,"  that  those  who 
opposed  any  expression  of  their  will  were 
traitors,  and  that  it  was  their  business  to  watch, 
with  a  suspicious  eye,  over  their  agents  who 
governed  for  them,  they  eagerly  embraced 
these  doctrines  which  seemed  to  promise  them 
so  much  and,  in  their  wild  desire  for  liberty, 
rushed  headlong  into  anarchy. 

There  were  some  few  attempts  on  the  part 
of  the  Jacobins  to  rally  after  their  overthrow. 
In  1798,  some  of  the  old  members  of  the  Club, 
together  with  some  of  the  members  of  the  Club 
of  the  Pantheon,  attempted  to  form  a  political 
club  which  met,  for  a  few  weeks,  in  the  Rue  du 
Bac.!     The  Directory,  however,  speedily  closed 

1  Aulard,  tome  i.,  p.  53. 


1 1 6  Essqys  on  Fre7ich  History. 

it  and  ordered  the  preparation  of  a  law  regard- 
ing political  societies, — a  law  which  was  still 
unfinished  when  the  Coup  d ' Etat  of  the  18th 
Brumaire  gave  to  France  a  master  and  one 
who  did  not  permit  any  political  society  to  re- 
vive. For  Frenchmen,  then,  the  days  of  clubs 
and  debates  were  over.  Henceforth  they  were 
to  march,  at  the  command  of  an  imperious 
captain,  straight  forward,  under  the  mysteri- 
ous spell  of  that  which  was,  in  a  sense,  their 
watchword,  and,  in  the  end,  alone  remained  to 
them  for  all  their  blood  and  triumphs, — 
Glory. 


INDEX. 

Aiguillon,  Due  d',  60,  66. 

Allmain,  doctor  in  the  Paris  University,  19. 

Amaury,  Nicholas,  59. 

Anthoine,  his  speech,  100. 

Bailly,  66,  82,  93. 

Barere,  67,  92. 

Barnave,  60,  67,  71. 

Beauharnais,  67. 

Billaud-Varenne,  67  ;  his  speech,  78  ;  96. 

Boissy  d'Anglas,  92. 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  67,  io3,  no,  116. 

Breton  Club,  58  ;  its  members,  60. 

Briconnet,  Guillaume,  bishop  of  Meaux,  21-23,  33-  3 

Brune,  67. 

Brunswick,  Duke  of,  his  proclamation,  99. 

Cafe  Amaury,  59. 

Carra,  79,  96,  102. 

Champ-de-Mars,  affair  of  the,  82-S4,  91. 

Charles  V.  of  Spain,  26,  28,  36. 

Chenaux,  his  speech,  79,  So. 

Clement  VII.,  pope,  38. 

Cloots,  67. 

Collot  d'Herbois,  65,  96. 

Corroller,  61. 

Danton,  75,  78,  81,  84,  85,  91,  96,  93,  103,  no. 

117 


1 1 8  Index. 

David,  painter,  69. 
De  Roma,  Dominican  monk,  32. 
Desmeuniers,  81. 
Desmoulins,  6S,  78,  91,  103. 
Du  Bellay,  Guillaume,  41. 
Du  Bourg,  Jean,  46. 
Dumouriez,  93,  95. 
Duportail,  94. 

Expiatory  procession,  47,  48. 

Farel,  Guillaume,  his  birth  and  family,  6  ;  meets  Lefevre,  8  ;  the 
Luther  of  France,  13  ;  causes  Lefevre  to  abandon  saint-worship, 
19  ;  22  ;  goes  to  Switzerland,  36  ;  his  character,  51. 

Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  14. 

Francis  I.,  15,  22  ;  his  birth  and  character,  25-28  ;  36,  40,  41,  44  ; 
his  speech,  48,  49. 

Girondins,  their  attitude  toward  the  war,  93,  94  ;  their  fall,  ill. 
Gower,  Lord,  English  Ambassador,  his  letter   concerning  affair  of 

Champ-de-Mars,  83,  84. 
Gregoire,  Abbe,  60,  68,  75,  92. 

Henry  IV.  of  France,  25,  57,  72. 
Henry  VIII.  of  England,  14,  27. 

Jacobins,  Club  of  the,  origin,  58  ;  place  of  meeting,  62,  63  ;  its  ob- 
jects and  purposes,  64  ;  its  officers  and  rules,  65,  66  ;  branch  so- 
cieties of,  70  ;  begins  the  second  revolutionary  movement,  73  ; 
passes  decree  concerning  Mirabeau,  74  ;  growth  of  power  of, 
75  ;  its  part  in  the  affair  of  the  Champ-de-Mars,  85-90  ;  the 
schism  in  the  club,  91,  92  ;  its  attitude  toward  the  war,  96,  97  ; 
divides  the  spoils  after  August  10th,  no  ;  internal  strife  in,  in  ; 
closed  by  the  Committees  of  Government,  113  ;  its  doctrines, 
114,  115  ;  its  attempt  to  rally,  115. 

Julius  II.,  pope,  14. 

La  Chapelier,  60. 
Lacoste,  Marquis  de,  60. 
Lafayette,  71,  82. 


Index.  i  1 9 


Lameth,  Charles  and  Alexander,  60,  6S,  71. 

La  Re'velliere-Lepeaux,  60. 

Lavalette,  6S. 

Lefevre,  Jacques,  his  birth  and  education,  4  ;  his  works,  5  ;  his  ap- 
pearance, 6  ;  completes  Latin  commentary  upon  the  Psalms,  9  ; 
publishes  commentary  upon  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  10  ;  an- 
nounces cardinal  doctrine  of  the  Reformation,  13  ;  condemned 
by  the  Sorbonne,  21  ;  goes  to  Meaux,  22  ;  translates  the  Bible, 
29  ;  writes  to  Farel,  31  ;  becomes  intimidated,  36  ;  his  lack  of 
courage,  39  ;  his  death,  40  ;  his  character,  51,  52. 

Legendre,  68. 

Leo  X.  (Giovanni  de'  Medici),  14. 

Louis  XII.,  6,  14,  24. 

Louis  XIV.  (Le  Grand  Monarque),  50,  9S. 

Louis  XVI.,  his  character,  76,  77  ;  his  flight  to  Varennes,  78  ;  de- 
clares war  against  Austria,  93  ;  dismisses  the  Girondin  Minis- 
try, 97  ;  leaves  the  Tuileries,  107. 

Louisa  of  Savoy,  23,  37. 

Luther,  Martin,  13,  iS  ;  posts  his  ninety-five  theses,  20  ;  at  Diet  of 
Worms,  34  ;  51  ;  his  influence  on  the  French  Reformation, 
52,   53- 

Maintenon,  Madame  de,  50. 

Mandat,  his  defence  of  the  Tuileries,  104,  105. 

Marat,  78,  91,  96. 

Margaret  of  Angouleme,  23  ;  her  birth  and  education,  24,  25  ;  40. 

Marseillais,  battalion  of  the,  101. 

Mauconseil,  section,  their  petition,  102,  103. 

Maximilian,  King  of  the  Romans,  14. 

Melanchthon,  Philip,  41. 

Merlin,  his  speech,  100. 

Michael  Angelo,  14. 

Milon,  Barthelemi,  45. 

Mirabeau,  60,  6S,  71  ;  his  death,  73  ;  Louis  XVI. 's  opinion  of 
him,  76. 

Narbonne,  Louis  de,  94,  95. 
Xecker,  61,  97. 
Nostradamus,  15. 


1 20  Index. 

Olivetanus,  Robert,  Bible  of,  30. 
Orleans,  Due  d',  61,  69,  78,  92. 
Orleans,  Louis  Philippe  d',  68. 

Paul  III.,  pope,  49. 
Pavia,  battle  of,  36. 
Petion,  60.  68,  75,  91,  92. 
Placards,  Year  of  the,  41. 

Rabaut  Saint-Etienne,  69,  92. 
Raphael,  14. 
Real,  69. 

Robespierre,  Maximilien,  60,  69,  74,   84,  91,  92,  96,  98  ;  his  rise  to 
power,  in  ;  comment  of  d'  Hericault  upon  him,  112,  113. 

Sieyes,  60,  92. 

Sorbonne,   foundation  of,    3  ;    condemns  Luther's  works,   20  ;  con- 
demns Lefevre,  21  ;  causes  Francis  to  prohibit  printing,  44. 
St.  Anthony,  arm  of,  16. 
St.  Bartholomew,  massacre  of,  50. 
St.  Dionysius,  body  of,  15. 
St.  Stephen,  stones  that  killed,  16. 
States-General  of  France,  opening  of,  57. 
Surriano,  Michel,  Venetian  Ambassador,  16. 

Talleyrand,  92. 
Tallien,  69. 
Talma,  actor,  69. 

University  of  Paris,  its  origin,  3. 

Vernet,  Carle,  69. 

Vio,  Thomas  de,  cardinal,  19. 

Volney,  60. 


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